The swelling Thenpennai river near Soolagiri in Krishnagiri District is posing a risk to students of the surrounding areas who have to wade through the waters to reach school.

More than 100 students from the Podur, Alialam and Rampura villages have no option other than to regularly cross the river to attend school.

But when the river rises during monsoon, the students are cut off from schools and miss classes quite frequently, said G Ramamoorthy, president of the Tamil Nadu NTR State Youth organization.

Some of the boys still make it by bundling up their dresses while crossing, but girl students have to simply stay back and wait for the water level to recede.

“On certain days, after braving it all to reach school, they will not be able to return home as it will be too dangerous to cross. So they stay put at relatives’ homes,” Ramamoorthy said.

The students who suffer the most are those preparing to sit for board exams, he said.

Another resident, K Murali, said regularly about 20 students only go to school now, others have discontinued studies.

“Very small children have to be carried to cross over,” he said.

The only other alternative is to walk not less than 20km to reach school, which is equally impossible, said Murali.
Apart from inaccessible schools, the village stands cut off from business with normal life affected especially in the monsoon season.

It’s 10 years since the villagers started demanding a bridge over the river, but nothing has happened about this.

Tired of waiting for government response, Ramamoorthy is taking to the social media.

He is aiming to generate awareness of the issue among people and draw the attention of officials.

“I have 3,000 friends on Facebook, and 45 of them have already shared our plight with many others.”