Chennai: The forest department officials are in a state of shock with the state government ordering a probe into the Theni Kurungani forest fire tragedy in Western Ghats. The forest department which had given the first hand information to the state government made it clear that the trek was an illegal event organised by the Chennai Trekking Club and made all efforts to ensure that the department was not blamed by the opposition and the media.
However, the department failed to clarify how a group of trekkers from different parts of the state gathered near Theni reserve forest and proceeded into the forest without the knowledge of the local foresters ranging from assistant conservator, ranger, foresters and guards.
According to Panagal building sources, the forest department headquarters in Chennai, this is the first incident in which people have died in forest fire. Forest fire in Western and Eastern ghats of Tamil Nadu is an annual event. The forest fires are common from January to April and for this reason the wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests are closed as per the local weather conditions, sources said.
In this case, the tragedy occurred as there was no local guide to help the trekkers, who appeared to be amateurs. Further Kurangani is not a very tedious trek route, but the lack of awareness about the forest fire and the terrain were the major cause for the tragedy.
"The foresters have arrested the organiser and the investigation are on. The revenue officials in Kancheepuram are also investigating the camp details of Chennai Trek king Club. The survivors would also be summoned for enquiry once when the treatment is over,” said a highly placed official who is also in touch with the state health department attending the 17 survivors.
Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan camping in Madurai government hospital said that seven people are in critical condition with more than 40 per cent burns. A dedicated ward to treat the victims is working over time and plastic surgery will be done for the recovering patients, he told reporters.
According to a forest range officer who had served in Theni, there is an annual increase in the number of trekkers going in to jungles across Tamil Nadu. Social media should be blamed for the tragedy and most of the youngsters who take up treks are from I-T and corporate sectors. The youngsters get carried away by seeing the pictures posted in Facebook and they join the group without any jungle skills", the ranger said.
Meanwhile the family members of the survivors mostly remained silent and chose not to remain silent in front of the media.
This is not first time Chennai Trekking Club has run into trouble
While the volunteer-based Chennai Trekking Club has been actively promoting outdoor activities in the city for about a decade now, this is not the first time its treks have run into trouble.
In July 2014, 24-year-old software professional, who was part of the club's trekking expedition to Sakleshpur region of Western Ghats near Banga
lore, went missing for over 72 hours. Luckily, the techie, Srikanth Balaji managed to find his way out after three days. Ironically, the trek was dubbed as 'Surviving the monsoon' trek by the organisers in their official website and Srikanth went missing within a few hours of the start of the trek.
He had ended up taking a wrong route after he got left behind by the trekking group when he was tying his shoelaces, his family members told DC then. There was heavy rain and since the trekking party was already deep into the woods, their mobile phones were not working which added to the worry of the other members of the group.
After spending horrifying nights with leeches and snakes for company, Srikanth finally found a saviour in the form of a local tribal man, who guided him out of the forest and incidentally met his trek friends as they were climbing down.
Forest authorities then booked a petty case against the members of the trekking group for entering a forest area without permission. However, Netizens poured in support for the volunteer based, non-profit Trekking Club in social media after allegations in the media and in social media against the expat founder and its members." We are just a group of like-minded people and we go on treks where participants share the expenses among themselves. It is not for profit or illegal as claimed in some sections of the media," a long time member of the club told DC.
On Monday, police officials visited Chennai Trekking Club's office in Palavakkam. However, the premises were not in use. Police sources said the house has been locked for quite a while now.
