Thirty six people including students and IT professionals were trapped in a massive forest fire in the hills above Kurangani, a tourist spot in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu’s Theni district on Sunday evening. Nine persons have been rescued so far.
Thirty six people including students and IT professionals were trapped in a massive forest fire in the hills above Kurangani, a tourist spot in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu’s Theni district on Sunday evening. Nine persons have been rescued so far.
Theni district collector M Mariam Pallavi Baldev said that two teams of 36 trekkers were trapped in the forest fire on Sunday with nine persons able to climb down with minor injuries and rest still caught up in the fire.
According the information, she said that 24 people from Chennai Trekking Club comprising 22 women and two men and a 12 member trekker, mostly family members from Tirupur and Erode districts trapped in the fire.
“They had camped at top of the Kozhuku hills last night. When they were returning, they were caught in the fire and got split. Some of them came down safely while the rest were caught in the fire and still remaining in the hills,” she told reporters on Sunday night.
She, however, said that there was no report of any deaths but some have sustained serious injuries.
“Since it is a hilly terrain with no motorable roads, we have no option left but to carry them down with the help of people. We have six medical teams and 13 ambulances to rescue them. The rescue and search operation is still underway,” she said, adding that Indian Air Force helicopter had to return to the Sullur Air Base in Coimbatore due to low light.
Vijayalakshmi, one of the trekker from Chennai, who has escaped from the fire said that the fire started to spread from the downhills when they were having lunch. “When we tried to climb up, there was a fire coming down as well. As the fire surrounded us, we all got split and some of us jumped into a pit and escaped,” she said, adding that they did not know what happened to other as one of the local person guided them to safety.
The Indian Air Force helicopters pressed into service to rescue the trapped trekkers following the request of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In a tweet, she also said that the Southern Command was in touch with the Theni Collector.
One MI-17 helicopter was en route from Sulur to assess the situation and provide necessary assistance, sources in the Defence Ministry said, adding that the helicopter may undertake another operation on Monday morning. Nirmala Sitharaman told a Tamil News channel that 10 commandos are rushing from Madurai to join the rescue operation. "They will trek and reach the top of the hills with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They will survey and identify a helicopter landing place to bring down the injured people on Monday morning," she said.
On the sidelines of another event in Salem, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Palaniswami said most of the people trapped in the forest have been rescued and only 10 of them are pending. He expressed confidence that all of them will be rescued. Alleging that miscreants were behind the fire at Kurangani, Palaniswami said forest department will strengthen security in forest areas after a review.
Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam who hails from Theni district and Forest minister Dindigul Seenivasan met the rescued person at the Bodi Government hospital.
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