An Indian official from has been suspended after he drained an entire reservoir to get back his phone that he had reportedly lost while taking a selfie.
According to the BBC, more than 440,000 gallons of water was removed from the Paralkot reservoir. The grueling task took four days. The amount of water that had to be pumped out equated to over 1500 acres of farmland!
The official identified as Rajesh Vishwas, is a local food inspector and claimed there was sensitive government information on the phone and that it needed to be retrieved.
The inspector claimed that an official had given him permission to drain “some water into a nearby canal.” He even claimed it “would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water”.
Vishwas was suspended after a water official became aware of the incident following numerous complaints.
Many Indian politicians were outraged by the actions and waste of resources and water as India is currently going through a drought with major scarcity in resources of water. which has led to crop failure, power outages and fires amidst the scorching temperatures.