Son finds father crushed under boulder

As Rama Naik began his morning shift at the stone quarry, his son had just finished working the night shift at the same site and was on his way home. Within minutes, he was rushing back after hearing about an accident, only to find his father crushed under a massive boulder.

Naik, who hailed from Yadgir, took up work at the quarry six months ago. He lived in Bengaluru with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Before started working as a driller, he worked as an agricultural labourer in his village.

“I heard about the accident and rushed to the site. When I reached, I found my father crushed under the boulder, and his face was crushed entirely,” his son said.

According to the family, Naik had joined his son at the quarry to repay loans taken for the marriages of his two daughters. The work paid slightly more than agricultural labour in his village, and he hoped to clear the debt sooner by earning better wages.

Many workers at the quarry said Naik’s story was similar to theirs. Most said they had taken up the “risky work” either because they had loans to repay or because the wages, ₹1,000 per day, was higher than what they could earn elsewhere.

“We were getting ₹1,000 a day. No other work pays us that much for this kind of labour. That’s why we came here from Yadgir,” said Sharada, a relative of Naik, outside Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital, where family members had gathered after the accident.

The family said they could not understand what had gone wrong, as the workers had been doing the same work under ‘similar conditions’ every day.

Sharada said most workers at the quarry were below 40 years of age, with many in their 20s and 30s. She added that it was Naik, her mother’s brother, who had encouraged her family to move to Bengaluru after telling them that the drilling work paid well.

“He told us there was good money here and that we could save enough for our family’s needs, including my marriage,” she said.