45-year-old Swapan Debbarma and his teenage daughter, Somati, who come from a poverty-stricken tribal family, residing in Dhanchara village in northern Tripura, became local heroes after saving the lives of over 2,000 passengers of the train travelling from Agartala towards Dharmanagar.

On June 15, the father and daughter were climbing down from Atharamura hill in Dhalai district when they saw a passenger train approaching towards a point where there was no railway track. Reports indicate that huge landslides following heavy rains had affected around a kilometre of the rail track, as reported by Indian Express

Swapan immediately jumped onto the tracks, took off his shirt and waved it vigorously hoping that the driver of the train would notice him. Somali too joined her father in his efforts.

“If we had not spotted the signal and stopped the train, it could have met with a severe accident,” Sonu Kumar Mandal, the driver of the train, had told the media.

The Tripura Health Science and Technology Minister, Sudip Roy Barman, brought up this incident in the Zero hour of the Tripura Assembly and urged the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and the House to extend a befitting reward to the two of them.

Barman said that Swapan and Somati come from a tribal family of six, and somehow try and make ends meet by selling forest produce like firewood and bamboo at the local market.

Chief Minister, Deb, told the house that his government would recommend their names to the central Ministry of Railways for financial assistance and reward. Meanwhile, the Northeast Frontier Railway has also promised to reward Swapan.

The Logical Indian salutes the Father-daughter duo, who averted a big train accident due to which many lives may have lost. If not for their bravery and presence of mind, hundreds of passengers could have lost their lives.

Also published on Medium.