On the morning of August 3, the Kariyankode River in Kannur didn’t look like a river. It looked like a fast, brown sea. Monsoon had been pounding north Kerala for days, and a small island mid-river had shrunk to a patch of mud with one man on it — 59-year-old farmer Benny, stranded since the previous evening.
Three volunteers tied a rope to a tree and went in. One of them was Rajesh, 36, a daily-wage worker from Kannur who had spent the last week pulling people out of waterlogged houses.
They reached Benny. On the way back, the current picked up. Rajesh took off his own life jacket and tied it around Benny. Seconds later, his grip on the safety rope slipped. The river took him.
Rajesh’s body was recovered downstream that evening. The video of the rescue — the jacket, the rope, the current — spread across Kerala overnight. One gesture turned him into a symbol of what Kerala’s floods bring out in ordinary people.
The Rescue At Kariyankode: What Happened On August 3- Kannur had been on orange alert for 48 hours. Kariyankode, usually knee-deep, was 12 feet above normal level. Benny had gone to check his small plot on the river island on August 2 and couldn’t get back as water rose overnight.
Locals called the Fire and Rescue Services, but the current was too strong for a boat. A group of youth volunteers who were working with the panchayat volunteered to try a rope crossing — a method used often in Kerala’s floods.
Rajesh, along with two others, entered the water around 11 am. They secured a nylon rope to a coconut tree on the bank, swam diagonally with the current, and reached the island. They tied Benny to the rope.
According to the other two volunteers, Benny was panicking and could not swim. Rajesh, without hesitation, removed his orange life jacket and put it on Benny. He said he would hold the rope.
On the return, a submerged branch or a sudden surge — no one is sure — jerked the rope. Rajesh lost his grip. The other two managed to pull Benny to shore. Rajesh was swept away.
It was caught on a bystander’s phone. You can hear someone shouting, “jacket, jacket.”
Who Was Rajesh: Not A First-Time Rescuer- Rajesh was not a trained disaster responder. He was a 36-year-old father of two from Padiyoor panchayat, who worked as a painter and construction helper. But in his village, he was known as the person who shows up when water comes.
In 2018, during Kerala’s worst floods in a century, he volunteered for 6 days, moving people from his panchayat to relief camps in a country boat.
In 2024, after the Wayanad landslides, he went as part of a volunteer team from Kannur with shovels and tarpaulin sheets, spending a week in search and rescue. He never posted about it.
Friends describe him as quiet. He had recently started building a small house under the Life Mission housing scheme, but work had stalled due to lack of funds. His family lived in a rented shed.
He had no life insurance.
One Life Jacket: Why This Image Stayed With Kerala- Kerala has seen hundreds of rescues in the last decade. What made Rajesh’s different was the choice.
In rescue training, you are taught never to give up your own flotation device. It violates protocol. But in real floods, protocol often gives way to instinct.
That jacket — given mid-river, in a current that could kill — turned a rescue into a moral story. It reminded people of 2018, when fishermen took their boats out without asking for money, when housewives cooked for entire camps, when strangers formed human chains.
In WhatsApp groups and on Malayalam TV, people didn’t share the video to get views. They shared it with one line: “He gave his jacket.” The jacket was recovered later, still tied to Benny. Benny survived.
The Funeral and State Honour-Rajesh’s funeral on August 4 drew hundreds. The Chief Minister of Kerala came to Padiyoor, laid a wreath, and announced state honours for Rajesh. The district collector said the government would complete construction of his unfinished house as a mark of gratitude, and release immediate relief of Rs 10 lakh to the family.
The Fire and Rescue Department gave a guard of honour. Fishermen’s associations and volunteer groups across Kannur observed a minute’s silence.
His 8-year-old son was given Rajesh’s volunteer ID card from the 2018 floods, laminated by his friends. It was not a quiet funeral. People cried openly. In Kerala, flood rescuers are not seen as extras. They are seen as the system when the system fails.
A Pattern Of Volunteer Sacrifice In Kerala- Rajesh is not an isolated loss. Since 2018, Kerala has lost at least 9 volunteers during flood and landslide operations — drownings, landslides, electrocutions.
The state depends heavily on informal volunteers because formal forces cannot reach every interior river and paddy field in time. In 2018, it was estimated that over 4,000 fishermen’s boats did more rescues than official boats in the first 72 hours.
That reliance is both Kerala’s strength and its risk. Volunteers often work without life jackets, helmets, or ropes that can take the load. In Kariyankode, the rope was a local shop rope, not a rescue-rated one.
After Rajesh’s death, the Kannur administration announced it would stock rescue-rated jackets and ropes in every flood-prone panchayat and run a one-day training for youth volunteers before each monsoon. It’s a small change, but one his family asked for.
What Remains: A House, A River, A Story- Rajesh’s unfinished house is now being built by his neighbours and the panchayat. Photos show cement bags arriving with “For Rajesh” written on them.
The Kariyankode River has receded. Benny, the farmer, is back home. In an interview, he said he did not know Rajesh before that day and now cannot take off the image of him removing the jacket.
Kerala’s floods will return next year. They always do. What people will remember from August 3 is not the water level or the alert colour. They will remember that a man who had very little — a half-built house, a daily wage — gave away the one thing keeping him afloat. Sometimes a whole disaster is remembered in one act. In Kerala’s 2026 floods, it’s a life jacket.
References:
- Kerala volunteer drowns after giving life jacket to stranded farmer in Kannur – The Hindu https://www.thehindu.com.
- Kannur flood rescue: Man who gave his life jacket honoured – Malayala Manorama https://www.onmanorama.com
- CM gives state honours to Kannur rescuer Rajesh, promises to complete house – Mathrubhumi https://english.mathrubhumi.com.
- Kerala floods 2018 volunteer rescuer dies in Kannur – Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
- Wayanad landslides 2024 volunteer list: Rajesh from Kannur – Hindustan Times https://www.hindustantimes.com