Celebrating his 26th birthday with friends at a waterfall in California turned tragic for a software engineer from Piridi village in Andhra Pradesh. Singireddy Sai Srihari Krishna, identified as the victim, lost his life after being swept away by a strong current when he got trapped in a whirlpool while entering the water.
Last year, another unfortunate incident occurred involving two 32-year-old men of Telugu descent who drowned in the Colorado River in California. The men, including an engineer, had anchored their rented pontoon boat and decided to cool off in the water without wearing life jackets. The victims were identified as Anoop Gankidi from Tempe and Venkata Mukkaala from Milpitas, California, by the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
Anoop Gankidi, originally from Hyderabad, had relocated to the US for his master’s degree in computer engineering at California State University. While Mukkaala’s nationality was not officially confirmed, reports suggest he was of Telugu heritage and worked as a computer engineer in the Phoenix area.
The tragic incident unfolded when the two men, along with three others, entered the water after anchoring their boat. Despite one person managing to reach shallow water, Gankidi and Mukkaala encountered difficulties and did not resurface. Their lifeless bodies were recovered by authorities approximately 20 minutes later, and both were pronounced dead at a nearby medical facility.