A weekend trekking expedition at the Kurangani reserve forest in Tamil Nadu’s Theni turned tragic with ten trekkers, including five women and one child, were killed in the massive forest fire in the hills on Sunday. Among the dead, six were from Chennai while three were from Erode district.
A weekend trekking expedition at the Kurangani reserve forest in Tamil Nadu’s Theni turned tragic with ten trekkers, including five women and one child, were killed in the massive forest fire in the hills on Sunday. Among the dead, six were from Chennai while three were from Erode district.
“Out of the 36 trekkers, 27 are rescued from the hills while nine persons are dead. Of the rescued, 17 were hospitalised and 10 did not require hospitalisation,” Theni district collector Mariam Pallavi Baldev said. One of the hospitalised women succumbed to injuries on Monday evening while seven others battling for the lives in the hospital after suffering burn injuries ranging from 50 to 90 per cent.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami who visited the injured trekkers in the government hospital in Madurai announced a financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the family of the deceased while Rs 1 lakh to those suffered severe injuries.
Special Expedition
It was a women's day special trek to Kolukkumalai peak in Tamil Nadu's Theni district that has ended on a tragic note with nine persons charred to death in a raging forest fire on Sunday.
A group of 24 persons comprising of 22 women and two men went on a special trek to mark the Women's day by conquering one of South India's highest peak Kolukkumalai.
After conquering the peak, the trekkers started their downward journey to the plain and stopped for the lunch on Sunday afternoon at 1 pm when they were caught unaware by a raging fire from the downhill. “We were taken aback by the fire which started approaching us from the downhill so suddenly. We all got split and ran in all direction but the fire surrounded us,” said Vijayalakshmi one of the trekker who escaped without injuries.
A total of 36 trekkers comprising of two separate teams – 24 from Chennai and 12 from Tirupur and Erode districts were on a trekking expedition camped at Kolukkumalai peak on March 10. “They were caught in the forest fire when they were returning downhill on Sunday afternoon,” said Theni district collector Mariam Pallavi Baldev.
Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam told reporters in Madurai that the trekkers didn’t get permission from the forest department for their expedition. Palaniswami said that no trekking would be allowed during the summers as the forest fires were quite normal in the hills, while Panneerselvam clarified that the blaze was natural not a man-made. Meanwhile, the Kerala government has ordered to stop all the trekking activities in the forest areas following the forest fire tragedy.
Police have arrested Rajesh, a local guide, for taking the trekkers without getting permission from the forest department. The office of the Chennai Trekking Club which organised the woman’s day special trekking expedition from here at Pallavakkam remained deserted and its founder Peter Van Geit’s remained unavailable for comment. The Sholinganallur Tahsildar and Neelangarai police station visited the locked office. “We came to check whether the club was registered or not,” said Tahsildar Ellumalai.
E Ramakrishnan, a member of the club told DNA that entry into the tragic stuck forest crossing the check post at Kurangani village without the permission of the district forest officer would be impossible. “I am sure the leaders of the CTC team, both Arun and Vipin died in the fire, would have certainly got the permission,” he said, adding that all the expedition of the CTC would be undertaken with all the permissions.
A forest department official said that if they had got the permission from the forest department, they would be asked only to take the approved trekking route with a foot soldier accompanying them. "The foot soldiers who know the forest area in and out would take them only through approved and safer routes," the official said, adding that the trekkers might have entered the state's forest from Kerala side. A tourist operator based in the Theni said that some of the trekking groups would take trekkers on their own after visiting the forest once or twice with the local guides. "Always one should go on trekking with the help of the guides or local tribal people after obtaining permission from the forest department officials," said Derin Johnson, the tour operator.
The two tour operators in Erode who organised the trekking for 12 people, mostly family members, also went into hiding, the police said.
Meanwhile, the mortuary at the Government Medical College hospital in Theni district witnessed scenes of inconsolable grief on Monday as family members and relatives of the nine persons, who were killed in the forest fire, were subjected to the difficult task of identifying the charred bodies of the victims. The IAF helicopters recovered all the bodies trapped in the hills to Theni Government hospital's mortuary.
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 "Theni Forest Fire PTI")
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