Walking the weary endless road for 2,000 km is not just enervating. Yet Salman Khan, a migrant worker from Bengaluru, strived to get back home in Uttar Pradesh, walking all the tiring way. But the tragedy struck the migrant worker and his family within hours of him reaching home in Dhanepur village in east UP's Gonda district when he was bitten by a snake as he went to the field to wash up himself after a long and dusty journey.
Migrant worker reaches home, dies by snakebite
Salman, 23-year-old had walked incessantly for 12 days to reach his home from Bengaluru. Barely an hour later was he bitten by a snake from the sugarcane field and breathed his last due to the venom.
His mother, Ruksan, in her late fifties, went into a shock following his death on Friday. She was hospitalised after her condition deteriorated following the news of her son's death and is reportedly slipping in and out of consciousness.
Salman reached Bengaluru in search of a job in December. He found work at a construction site there, along with many others from Gonda. As the lockdown measures hit hard on his earning, Salman and his 10 other friends began their journey on foot on May 12, finally reaching home on May 26.
To dodge the police in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the workers were wading across Tungabhadra river.
Plight continues
Salman's family now struggles to pay Ruksan's hospital bill after his sudden demise.
"Our contractor did not pay us for two months. We also tried to get on the train but in vain. We felt humiliated by long delays and police caning. After all this, 10 of us decided to start the journey on foot to Gonda in UP," said Koushal Kumar, who worked with Salman in Bengaluru.
"As we reached the Karnataka border, we were chased away by police. So we decided to take an alternative route through the railway tracks. After days of walking, we reached Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. We also waded through the Tungabhadra river on AP-Telangana border and managed to enter Maharashtra. We then moved through the night to escape police and hitched on trucks in Madhya Pradesh," he added.
