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Indian diver who has saved the lives of more than 106 people

 For years, Shiva had helped police find the body of Hussein Sagar Lake in the south Indian city of Hyderabad.  And then one day, he stopped someone before they jumped, saving lives for the first time.  BBC Telugu's Balla Satish's report.



  Police in India are underpaid and poorly trained.  Many do not know how to swim and are not funded to hire professional divers.  


  But when Shiva volunteered, he says, he returned.  "They initially refused, saying I was too young. But I reassured them," he recalls.


  He did this and ran away with 40 rupees, which is now worth about 0.54 or $ 0.42 but a good amount for him at the time.


  That was 20 years ago.  He is now 30 years old and he still helps the local police.


  Shiva lives through a huge artificial lake Hussain Sagar in the center of the city.  A popular tourist destination, the lake is also used to immerse idols of Hindu deities during the Ganesh festival.


  The idols are scattered under the water and Shiva is fishing with iron rods made to sell recycled.


  

Shiva does more than pull corpses out of the lake - he saves people often before jumping into the water, and sometimes even after.


  

  He is also now training his wife to swim so he can help retrieve the women’s bodies.


  Inspector B Dhanalakshmi, who posted at the police station near Hussain Sagar Lake, admitted that Shiv had been his "big help".


  Suicide is still a crime in India and many people flee Shiva before they can call the police.


  Shiva says he never knew his parents and spent most of his childhood on the streets with short stays in orphanages.  At some point - he can't be sure how old he is - he started living with a woman and her children who were also homeless.  He approached them and he was one of his sons who taught him how to swim, a skill that changed the course of his life.


  Line

  Read more about BBC Telugu coverage

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  ‘I’m a fake U.S.  Ran away from university '

  How WhatsApp helped turn the village into a herd

  'Blame people - we don't have a safe city'

  Line

  

  He says because they couldn’t save him, so he’s trying to make it from saving others.


  Saving life gives him some extra money - sometimes people who have saved him pay him in gratitude.  And due to the coverage in the local press he has turned into a small celebrity and has been given small roles in Telugu films.  But Shiva says he doesn’t consider jobs to save lives.


He says people have different motives for suicide - from exam pressures to love affairs to family quarrels and financial difficulties.  He says that sometimes the elderly try to kill themselves when abandoned by children.


  Recently, he said he saw a man jump into a lake, fearing he might have contracted the coronavirus.  The man's friend jumped to save him and Shiva also went inside, but he only managed to save the friend.  He says family members of the deceased did not even take the body for fear of catching the virus.


  "There's no time to put on any gear. You have to react quickly. If you see someone jumping, you have to jump right away."


  The lake also smells during the summer and snakes are commonly seen on its shores, but Shiva has no plans to move forward.


  


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