Karnataka

Video: Unacademy CEO evacuated in tractor from flooded Bengaluru home

Residents of high-end gated communities say that their homes are inundated with several feet of water, and allege government apathy in helping with rescue efforts.

Written by : TNM Staff

Heavy rainfall has left several areas in Bengaluru inundated causing massive water logging crises. Following the floods and traffic chaos brought to the city by the torrential rains, several companies have asked their employees to work from home. The rains inundated several areas particularly in east Bengaluru, from slum settlements to posh gated societies.

As vehicles were nearly submerged in the flooded roads, tractors were deployed to ferry the affected people to safety. These included even the CEOs of million dollar companies. Gaurav Munjal, CEO of unicorn edtech company Unacademy, and his family were forced to leave their home in Bengaluru. Posting a video on social media of his family and pet being evacuated via tractor, Gaurav wrote, “Family and my Pet Albus has been evacuated on a Tractor from our society that’s now submerged. Things are bad. Please take care. DM me if you need any help, I’ll try my best to help.”

Meena Girisaballa, founder and CEO of Purple Front Technologies, was also stranded in her flooded locality in Bengaluru’s Yemalur, and appealed to the government for help in rescuing residents. Posting a video online, she said, “I am Meena Girisaballa. We live in Vilas, which is a 77 east community and is the most flooded because all the water from the nala (drain) has been now going into the community and we don’t have much help in terms of tractors and evacuation because the truck is not allowed inside by the BBMP guys. We are taking our private tractors paying a lot of money and taking them inside to evacuate all the families, elderly people, people with pets. Everybody is stranded inside. Our houses are flooded. The whole ground floor is flooded. It’s a three floor house. The ground floor is flooded till my knees and it is in a very bad state. The last three roads, you cannot go by tractors, we need a boat, we don’t even have a boat, so that’s another issue that we have right now. So we need all your help.”

Upscale apartment buildings and gated communities like Divyasree 77 Place, Epsilon Residential Villas, and Rohan Jharoka were among the worst-hit by the torrential rains. Residents told TNM that cars parked in the basements of these communities were floating as water levels rose, and that they have been cut off from drinking water and electricity. They also alleged that no representative from the Karnataka government or the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) visited the inundated areas to inquire about rescue efforts.

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