Two rescue boats sent to save stranded fishermen vanished in the waters of Betupalli Cheruvu in Sathupalli, Khammam district — and within hours, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had the state machinery mobilised. The Chief Minister's Office confirmed on Wednesday, 4 November 2026 that the CM had personally reviewed the alarming situation where SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) boats, dispatched to rescue fishermen caught in the lake, had themselves gone missing.

Rescue boats lost while saving fishermen — what happened at Betupalli Cheruvu

The sequence of events underscores a double emergency: fishermen first found themselves in distress at Betupalli Cheruvu, a lake in Sathupalli mandal of Khammam district in eastern Telangana. SDRF teams were deployed to reach them — the same force constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and maintained by every state precisely for such water-body incidents. But the rescue boats sent in never returned. A rescue mission had become a crisis of its own.

The CM's office stated that Revanth Reddy sought a detailed briefing on the incident. He issued a direct order to the Khammam District Collector to take all necessary measures to bring the SDRF personnel to safety. Simultaneously, he directed the Chief Secretary of Telangana to review the situation on a continuous, real-time basis until the personnel are accounted for.

Chain of command activated from the top

The CM's direct intervention — bypassing no level but accelerating every one — reflects the standard emergency protocol under which Telangana's disaster management chain operates. When boats and trained rescue workers go missing on a water body, the district machinery alone is not enough; the signal has to come from the top. By tasking both the District Collector and the Chief Secretary simultaneously, Revanth Reddy ensured that field-level action and state-level coordination are running in parallel, not in sequence.

Khammam district, situated in eastern Telangana, contains multiple lakes and reservoirs and has seen periodic SDRF deployments over the years. The Betupalli Cheruvu incident now joins that record as one with an added layer of severity — the rescuers themselves need to be found.

SDRF personnel and anxious families await word

The immediate stakes are human. SDRF personnel are trained for exactly these scenarios, but no training eliminates the risk of a boat going missing in difficult water conditions. Their colleagues, families, and the broader district administration are waiting on updates from the Khammam Collector's office and the Chief Secretary's ongoing review. The original fishermen whose distress triggered the deployment remain part of the unresolved picture as well.

The government has not yet issued a formal casualty update or confirmed the status of those on board the missing vessels. Official communication from the Khammam Collector or the Telangana Chief Secretary is the next critical data point in this unfolding situation.