by Kurangani – Kolukkumalai Hills in Western Ghats is located near Bodinayakanur.
Prabhu the guy who escaped from the fire at Kurangani Fire incident, today went to the Police station and gave his statement regarding the incident, told for trekking and sight seeing on 9th March night, planned for the trip, through the social media.
The usual team of 12 left through van and they reached the Kurangani check post on 10th March 18 morning and they made the payment of 200/head for all 12 people and thereby got the permission to go into the forest, then they started trekking with a local guide – Ranjith , who is well known of all the routes at Kurangani. The team started around 9am walking towards Kolukkumalai and they reached the spot at 6pm and started setting up the camp for night stay, till this everything went well and the next day around 2pm, the guide Ranjith informed the team that fire is rapidly approaching, so immediately, Ranjith with 3 women escaped from the place rest all scattered and few managed to escape, some lost their lives, this was stated by Prabhu.
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Rescue Mission
Later when the fire was under control, the Kurangani local residents went with police and found 9 people who lost their lives.
Pallavi Baldev – District Collector – Theni District said all latest machineries have been deployed and the rescue operation had been expedited.
And 4 helicopters is engaged with 16 Commandos, the helicopters are operated from Sulur Air Base, Coimbatore.
Treatment
Mr. Veeraraghava Rao – District Collector -Madurai said specialist Plastic Surgeon have been deployed to carry out the treatment at Rajaji Government Hospital.
A total of 37 people who were out for the trek, which includes 26 Women, 8 Men and 3 childrens.
People who lost their lives :
1) Akhila
2) Hemalatha
3) Punitha
4) Subha
5) Arun
6)Vipin
7)Tamilchelvan
8)Vivek
9)Divya
10)Nisha
People who are in Critical Stage
1) Anuvidya
2) Kannan
3) Divya
4) Devi
5) Meena
Government Financial Aid
Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Mr. Edappadi K Palaniswami has announced 4 lakhs for each families of deceased trekkers, 1 Lakh for trekkers suffering from serious injuries and 50 thousand for trekkers with minor injuries.
