In the heart of rural Bihar, India, the monsoon season had once again descended with relentless fury. The skies, heavy with dark clouds, unleashed torrents of rain that turned the fertile plains into treacherous swamplands. By late September, the region was overwhelmed by floods that swept through villages, submerging homes and farmlands, and leaving thousands displaced.
It was during this chaotic scene, as floodwaters swallowed the land, that a couple on a weathered ATV found themselves face-to-face with an unexpected miracle—a pack of puppies, emerging from the wreckage of a half-submerged car, chasing them through the floodwaters with a determination that left them breathless.
Ravi Sharma, 42, and his wife Priya, 38, were no strangers to the devastation caused by the annual floods in Bihar. As volunteers with a local disaster relief NGO, they had been loading their ATV with supplies—rice, bottled water, and medical kits—to deliver to the isolated villages that had been cut off from the outside world.
The floodwaters were high, rising rapidly, but their mission was clear: deliver aid to those in desperate need. Yet what began as a routine mission amidst the flooding rivers and submerged fields quickly turned into a heart-stopping moment when they encountered the pack of puppies.
On September 23, 2024, Ravi and Priya were en route to the village of Basantpur, one of the worst-hit areas. The ATV, a sturdy Mahindra modified with oversized tires to handle such rough terrain, churned through the deepening water, its engine barely audible over the pounding rain.
As they navigated through the flood, Ravi’s attention was drawn to movement in his peripheral vision. “At first, I thought it was just debris or maybe a cow struggling in the water,” Ravi later recalled. But as they slowed down, what they saw left them in shock.
In the midst of the floodwaters, a Fiat 124—a vintage car from the 1970s—was partially submerged, its once-proud form now an abandoned relic. The car had belonged to Hari Prasad, a reclusive farmer who had passed away two years earlier from complications related to untreated diabetes.
Neighbors spoke of Hari’s passion for his vintage car, which he had kept running long after it was no longer practical, using it to haul sugarcane across his fields. Now, the car was an unlikely sanctuary for a litter of puppies, stranded in the middle of a flood.
Inside the car, eight puppies huddled together, shivering in the cold, with their ribs protruding from their underfed bodies. The floodwaters had seeped into the rusted floorboards, reaching six inches high, yet the puppies pressed together, seeking warmth in the car’s damp interior.
One puppy, a tri-color with striking blue eyes, peered out from beside a half-submerged red plastic bottle of Thums Up soda, the cap still sealed as if mocking their thirst. Another held a frayed rag that might have once been a towel, a meager attempt to find comfort in the midst of disaster. The puppies seemed to cling to each other, trying to stay afloat in the rising water, their tiny paws paddling weakly.
When Ravi and Priya saw the puppies, their hearts sank. These were not just stray dogs—these were survivors of a flood that had claimed everything around them, including their mother, who had been the one to protect them through the worst of the storm.
The puppies were alive because of her. But the most surprising part came when the puppies, instead of running in fear, tumbled out of the car’s open door and began chasing after the ATV.
“They chased us,” Priya recalled, her voice trembling as she spoke about the moment on NDTV. “Not in fear, but like they knew we were their only chance.”
The puppies, despite being hungry and exhausted, showed a remarkable urgency, some slipping in the mud, others nipping at each other’s heels, determined to keep up with the ATV. One particularly brave puppy, a black one with white paws, actually grabbed onto the ATV’s rear tire with its teeth and held on for a few seconds before slipping off.
Ravi, stunned by the sight, slowed the ATV to a stop. The puppies swarmed around him, jumping against his legs and licking his boots, their eyes wide with a desperate, unspoken plea for help. Priya, her waterproof phone in hand, quickly captured the moment, including a haunting interior shot of the flooded Fiat—an image that would go viral within hours, spreading hope and compassion across the world.
As the puppies surrounded them, Ravi began scooping them up into empty rice sacks, preparing to take them to safety. But the surprises didn’t end there. One of the volunteers radioed in with satellite drone footage from the relief team. It revealed that the car wasn’t entirely abandoned.
Hidden beneath the dashboard, a ninth puppy—a smaller, weaker one with a broken front leg—was found. And beside it, the skeletal remains of their mother, a mixed-breed street dog, were discovered.
Dr. Meera Singh, the veterinarian who later treated the puppies, explained that the mother must have sought refuge in the car during the early stages of the flood.
She likely gave birth there, positioning herself to keep the puppies above the rising water as long as possible. But as the floodwaters continued to rise, the mother perished, leaving her puppies to fend for themselves. “It’s a miracle any survived,” Dr. Singh remarked.
The rescue of the puppies wasn’t easy. The ATV could only carry so much, so Ravi fashioned a sling from tarpaulin and strapped the puppies to the cargo rack. As they made their way to the clinic, one of the puppies, the blue-eyed one nicknamed “Monsoon,” began vomiting violently.
Tests revealed that it had ingested contaminated water, laced with E. coli from the flood—a common hazard in such disasters.
But despite the odds, the puppies fought on. With round-the-clock care, including IV fluids, antibiotics, and a warming lamp powered by a noisy diesel generator, the puppies began to recover.
Fiat, the runt of the litter, showed remarkable resilience. An X-ray revealed that its broken leg had already started to heal, likely because the mother had protected it fiercely before her death.
As the story of the “Flood Chasers” spread, it became a symbol of hope in the midst of tragedy. The photograph of the puppies in the submerged Fiat inspired people around the world. Celebrities like Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana shared the story, and news outlets such as BBC World News picked it up.
Donations poured in—over ₹50 lakh (about $60,000 USD) within a week—for the relief NGO, allowing them to expand their operations and save even more animals.
The community in Basantpur, inspired by the puppies’ survival, came together to restore Hari’s old Fiat. They transformed it into a mobile veterinary unit for future flood responses, a fitting tribute to the car that had once carried crops and now carried life-saving aid.
Today, the puppies are thriving in foster homes across Bihar. Monsoon, the blue-eyed puppy, was adopted by Priya and Ravi. It has grown into a spirited dog with a love for chasing ATVs during their drives.
Fiat, the one with the broken leg, now serves as a mascot at Dr. Singh’s clinic, a reminder of the strength and resilience of animals in the face of adversity. The other puppies were adopted by families across the world, with two even traveling abroad to Canada and Australia, where they serve as therapy dogs for flood survivors.
This incredible tale from Bihar’s floodplains reminds us of a profound truth: in the face of overwhelming adversity, the smallest creatures can teach us the most about perseverance, hope, and unity.
The puppies’ chase wasn’t just about survival; it was a testament to their unyielding pursuit of life, a raw and instinctual cry for help that turned an ordinary relief mission into a global beacon of compassion.
As climate change continues to intensify natural disasters worldwide—from Pakistan’s 2022 floods to recent deluges in Brazil—these unlikely heroes remind us that sometimes, rescue begins with noticing the desperate plea in a pair of determined eyes.