An Indian man drained nearly 21 lakh litres of water just to find his lost phone

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Phones dropping into a lake, pond or whatever is quite a common trope. We would usually read news about how owners would just move on, but there was an Indian government official who took it to another level. During the weekend, he actually drained out 21 lakhs litre of water from a reservoir to find his Samsung phone.

For your information, a lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to 100,000 so you can imagine how much water was flushed out. Rajesh Vishwas, 32, a food inspector lost his Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (worth 95,000 Rupee, ~RM5303) after he took a selfie at Paralkot reservoir next to a dam in Chhattisgarh.

In Vishwas' defence, he told the media that some villagers helped to find his phone after he dropped it since he's a local there. After they failed to find it for two days, the locals there suggested draining the water by a few feet. Vishwas also called the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the Water Resources Department (RC Dhivar) and gave oral permission to drain a few feet of water.

Three feet of water was drained from the reservoir over two days, but as reported, nearly 21 lakh litres of water was pumped out which was costly. The Samsung phone was found eventually but damaged. And since Vishwas misused his position, he got suspended with immediate effect.

While the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has IP68 water and dust resistance, it can only survive a maximum depth of 1.5 metres and up to 30 minutes. This applies to every other phone, although there are a few cases in which some iPhone models survived after being dropped into a lake or pond.