'Do we have enough precautionary devices?' R Ashwin expresses concern after manual scavenger dies of asphyxiation

A 25-year-old man died in Chennai on Tuesday after he entered a septic tank at the Express Avenue Mall to rescue his brother. He was part of a crew of manual scavengers employed by a private agency to carry out this illegal work.

Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin took to Twitter to express concerns after reading this news. He shared the story as he wrote, "Do we have enough precautionary devices to aid these hero’s?"

. Do we have enough precautionary devices to aid these hero’s? https://t.co/ALb7XPU157

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) November 12, 2019

According to the police, a man named Dhandapani had taken five men — Arunkumar, Ranjithkumar, Yuvaraj, Ajithkumar and Sreenath —  to the mall at 4 am to clean the septic tank, The News Minute reported. 

Of the five, Ranjithkumar first entered the septic tank and was cleaning it when he fainted inside due to the poisonous gases. 

On seeing this, 25-year-old Arunkumar, Ranjithkumar's brother, immediately jumped in to rescue him. While Arunkumar managed to get in and push his brother out, he himself got affected by the toxic fumes and died of asphyxiation. 

His body is currently at the Royapettah Government hospital for an autopsy.

Tamil Nadu is one of the states to have recorded the highest number of deaths due to manual scavenging in the last five years, The News Minute reported. 

The death count in Tamil Nadu stood at 144 – more than double the number of casualties reported by Uttar Pradesh - the state that recorded the second-highest number of deaths.