Nine trekkers dead in India Tamil Nadu forest fire

The dead include four women, one child and four men.

“The death toll now stands at 10 while 30 have been rescued”.

Nine people were killed in a forest fire in southern India after becoming trapped while hiking, police said Monday.

Heavy winds and the treacherous terrain is hampering the rescue operation. Two groups comprising 37 trekkers got stranded after fire broke out on Sunday evening.

The group had camped at a place up in the hills on Saturday night.

“As a normal seasonal cultivation practice, local farmers at the base burn grass during this season and on Sunday, it seems that they lit the grass at the base”. Had she not acted swiftly and informed the people about the fire incident, none of them would have survived.

Besides Theni, there were forest fires also in Ramakkalmedu and Pookkulam Mala sharing their borders with Kerala.

With little or no communication facilities in the remote woods, due to lack of mobile phone towers, information was hard to get.

Many trekkers tried to escape the blaze by jumping on boulders below.

“Forest officials could be at fault”.

“The forest department not issuing alerts and not preventing them (trekkers) from undertaking the expedition is the reason for the loss of lives”, he said.

“So far, 27 people have been rescued and operations are in full swing to rescue two others”.

Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan said rescue teams of officials and health department personnel were camping in the hills. Many of those injured sustained 70 per cent and above burn injuries.

He also ordered a full-fledged probe into the forest fire tragedy to unravel the facts on how the fire spread.

Meanwhile, Naveen Nair of Firstpost reported that the Chennai trekking club’s representative has been taken into custody by police in Theni.

The videos also narrated the harrowing tales of those rescued and brought to hospitals. Such an enquriy was to enable the government take further action in the matter, it said, adding it had hence chose to appoint Misra as enquiry officer.