HOPE FLOATS

A TRADITIONAL SHIKARA CONVERTED INTO A WATER AMBULANCE HAS BEEN HELPING THE RESIDENTS OF DAL LAKE GET TIMELY MEDICAL AID

- MOAZUM MOHAMMAD

TARIQ AHMAD PATLOO, 51, Houseboat owner, Srinagar

What he has done

Started a water ambulance service on the Dal Lake

LAST YEAR IN AUGUST, WHEN Tariq Ahmad Patloo, a houseboat owner in Srinagar, was infected with Covid and needed a ride to Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital, his own community failed him. He was unable to find a shikara to take him across the lake. Even after his recovery, the memory of that apathy haunted him more than the virus. Upon regaining his strength, Patloo began looking into the idea of starting a water ambulance service to help those Covid patients who are unable to find support. However, at above Rs 20 lakh, the cost of a commercial water ambulance—a motorized boat equipped with materials and devices to provide life-saving, immediate medical intervention—proved to be unaffordable for Patloo. So, instead, he converted a traditional shikara into a make-shift ambulance with financial assistance from the Satya Rekha Trust.

Besides houseboat and shikara owners, about 8,000 people living in the Dal Lake area, spread over 22 square kilometers, lack proper medical facilities or an ambulance to ferry them to the nearest hospital.

Patloo, determined to change the situation, worked for over a month, with a friend, to build the 35-foot-long and 5.5-foot-wide ambulance using lightweight materials, such as deodar, iron, and aluminum. He also fitted it with an outboard motor so that it could reach destinations quickly. The ambulance, launched in December 2020, has already helped many people reach the hospital and also ferried six dead bodies across the lake.