A trek, a fire and rumour mills: Making sense of the Theni tragedy

It's been almost two weeks since the tragic forest fire at the Kurangani Woman’s Day trek, that has claimed 18 lives. While the city grieves the souls it lost, facts remain hazy with media and authorities inexplicably targeting the Chennai Trekking Club.

Kurangini is a small village in one of the valleys of the Bodi range, in Theni district. Small estates along with tourism serve as its lifelines. A jeep path connects it to the world’s highest tea plantations at Kolukkumalai.

There is another road, made of compacted soil, unmotorable, and lined with plantations that connects the two places. A few metres down, a log tied across the road draws attention to two boards displayed by the forest department. One names the place and mentions Rs 200 as the trekking fee while the other admonishes him for trespassing.

Most of the time, a person can fill his name and emergency contact, pay the money at the desk and continue along the road. At other times, the desk would be unmanned and the villagers would direct him to the officers in the village square itself.

A trail to the left leads to more plantations and then to great stretches of grass. If the rainfall had been good, the grass would grow shoulder-high to engulf everyone. A lone tree signals more grass, switchbacks, dense forests and finally, tea plantations with the unique flavour of high altitude in their leaves.

Kolukkumalai tea estate can also be reached from Munnar by road. Tourists can then trek down to Kurangini along with the cyclists who zip up and down the trekking path. A quick Google search opens up blogs of people who have trekked here throughout the year, including in March 2017. City slickers get their much-needed grounding and the tribals use the extra money to make their lives a little easier.

The fire

March 11 2018, however, turned out to be a fatal exception to this merry exchange. A  fire, believed by experts to be man-made, swept up the slopes of the hill powered by an unusually strong wind. It reached the 39 trekkers – 27 from Chennai and 12 from Erode who were gathered around the lone tree on their way back to Kurangini. Four days from that moment, 14 of them would be declared dead and many would be left fighting for their lives. (The latest reported fatality count in the tragedy stands at 18)

At about 13:00 hours that Sunday, an hour before the trekkers reached this spot, the light recording instrument on board a NASA satellite sensed an abnormal increase in temperature in Kurangini north and south beats. A few minutes later, a radiometer on board another satellite recorded the same for Kurangini south beat.

Both the signals were analysed by the Forest Survey of India, FSI, and transformed into two email and SMS alerts at 13:57 and 13:59 that were sent to registered users. Although the alerts could be sent up to the beat level (Kurangini north and south), only upto district level (Theni) officers were registered in the state. FSI had sent 34 alerts for the Bodi range that week before these two alerts.

Forest officials have claimed that there is a big time lapse between FSI issuing alerts and its vendor getting them delivered. Despite the alleged lapses in the FSI system, villagers had been aware of the fires all week, but no action was taken till 4:30 PM on the day of the accident.

Alert or no alert, once a fire starts in dry grass, both the trekkers and the crisis management personnel have to overcome slow reaction times, low visibility due to smoke and time of day, panic and challenges in negotiating difficult terrain. The only way damage could be mitigated is by taking swift action, denying entry permission to tourists and blocking all entry points. The last measure is complicated by the understaffing in the forest department – 40% of lower cadre posts has been reported to be vacant.

Passing the buck

Even before a comprehensive investigation could be launched on the causes of the deaths, senior officials of the forest department found it necessary to shift blame away from themselves. A forest officer declared to reporters that no one has trekked in Kurangini before and whoever did, certainly did not have their permission.

The organiser of the team from Erode who had survived the fire was able to submit proof of the permission obtained by his group. The Chennai Trekking Club, CTC, and its organisers, who lead those from Chennai and died saving lives, came again under fire. They were blamed by police, press and public not only for not obtaining permission but also for greed and un-preparedness.

CTC, a non-profit volunteer-based platform, was called a Belgian racketeering agency by commercial tour operators. The facts: 4 of 12 trekkers dead in the Erode group which could prove that it had obtained permission and 9 of 27 dead in CTC, question every assumption made in these accusations.

The organisers and support group

Vibin Dhamodharan, with his lively eyes and childlike expression, was the darling of everyone he has spoken to. He joined CTC five years back and immediately connected to its passion and simplicity. He could read elephant dung with amazing precision and once survived a violent snowstorm by hiding all night in a bunker with a lighter for warmth.Three months before his wedding, he went on a 60 day backpacking trip armed with a borrowed bicycle and all of 6000 rupees in his wallet. His wife, Dhivya Viswanathan, is said to have remarked, “We have told him the date. If he arrives, there will be a wedding”.

Vibin saved 72 lives single handedly during the Chennai floods, with a rope, a person to watch the rope and a broken Sintex tank. Survivors remember how Vibin and Arun saved lives in Kurangini that day and kept walking back into the fire to save more.

Staring at the same fire, Dhivya refused to budge from the burning mountain without her husband. A lover of nature, she had joined CTC 4 years back and participated in treks and cleanups. The couple moved to Coimbatore after their wedding, went on frequent trips and had plans to make the city more active. The unnatural fire had other plans for them. Dhivya succumbed to her wounds 4 days after being separated from Vibin.

Her namesake and one of the organisers, Dhivya Muthukumar, was known for her crisp opinions and open personality. The successful event manager helped CTC get sponsors for its Chennai Coastal Cleanup year after year. She was always the first person to arrive in the Pallavaram hills every Wednesday, helping to organise the weekly fitness tests. An hour later, she would be seen escorting the first timers who had fainted on their way up. A survivor recalls how Dhiviya helped her up the rescue copter along with another trekker before running back to help the third. When the aircraft returned, she wasn’t alive.

Two more of the gang that called themselves “Bakoda boys” were lost to the fire that day. Arun Prabahar is the proud Limca record holder for the fastest motorcycle ride from Leh to Kanyakumari and an embodiment of everything that entails – surveying, careful planning, strategizing and perseverance. He was able to manage trekking teams in unusual terrains quite beautifully. Arun was notorious for talking seriously and then merging seamlessly into a joke.

Nisha Tamiloli, on the other hand, wouldn’t talk at all. Fiercely single, she guarded her space and let others have theirs. However, when a person got into a problem, she would go to any lengths to help them. She trained hard to lead a group of any size single-handedly into the forest and bring them back safely.

Akila, Subha, Punitha, Hemalatha and Anu Vidya also lost their lives to the forest fire that week. They were all conscientious souls with incurable wanderlust. Brought together by CTC, they breathed their last holding up all the values of a CTCian. Those injured and battling for their lives in the hospitals have to be braver and face a long and painful recovery. Each of them is an exceptional woman of an exceptional club.

Chennai Trekking Club

And finally, a thought for the CTC itself. Founded in 2008 by Peter Van Geit, “born in Belgium, rooted in Chennai”, the Chennai Trekking Club is a platform for like minded people to come together and make themselves and their surroundings a little better. Peter believed men and women who are close to nature made socially responsible citizens.

While CTC provided multiple avenues to strengthen body and mind – trekking, ultra running, biking, motorcycling and swimming, every CTCian invariably gets drawn to its socially and environmentally responsible core. They dig into trash, build schools, clean coasts, plant trees, rescue people, campaign against plastics and transform lives.

Though it is guided by Peter and other senior members, CTC is shaped by each and every member. There is no hierarchy, costs are shared by organisers and participants equally and surplus is diverted to zero-waste communities and tribal schools or used for nursery maintenance. All members have the opportunity to learn navigation and other survival skills both on and off field. CTC is low on gadgetry, high on skills and most importantly, it focuses on going forward together.

Going forward

Chennai Trekking Club, for all its commendable virtues, might not have been blameless on the day of the Kurangini fire; CTC did take a huge group into the mountains. At the same time, the forest department did not act on the fires a whole week and someone did set fire to the grass.

Other factors that are unseen now can come out in a thorough investigation and might be the ones to be blamed. But those in power chose to turn their wrath unjustly on CTC in particular, and trekking in general.

CTC has helped shape hundreds of responsible citizens who use what is available to improve the systems in place and enrich lives. It is time for the government and its auxiliary units to stop harassing organisations like this and start working with them, taking their responsibility towards the citizen’s physical and mental well being seriously. Instead, having invested heavily in urbanisation, poured concrete over every inch of soil and polluted every citizen’s breath, they now propose to cut off his access to nature by closing the forests and banning good organisations, and thus, push him towards malls, cinema halls, Tasmac shops and inevitably, multi speciality hospitals.

This could be a good time to recall Vivekananda’s words: “Any man, or class, or institution, or nation which bars free thought and action of an individual — even so long as that power does not injure others — is devilish and must go down”.

Comments:

  1. RAJESH R says:

    Well written and this is the most sensible article about theni forest fire incident until today

  2. J Suresh Kumar says:

    Wonderful article…! All are facts

  3. TK Ramkumar says:

    A thorough investigation findings will take its own time and things will rest there. All said and done if one calls all these activities as adventure sports we have to accept risk as 90% and balance 10% is luck all to one’s own account. Hue and cry after the mishap may shake up conscience of few in authorities nothing beyond. In this case no body will know who lit the fire. An irresponsible act.

  4. Suja says:

    Good reporting. But add a disclaimer at the beginning of the article, instead of at the end. The author is associated with CTC and may be biased in its favour.

  5. Raghul Chandrasekar says:

    Finally a media house not basing its content on hearsay or jumping to conclusions. Highly appreciated! Keep doing what you are doing.

  6. Vinodh says:

    Sensible and thoughtful post, Jotsna Iyer. Well written, covered up all Points and also says how govt has to go in hand with such organisation.

  7. dinesh Gupta says:

    Thank you for your good work on this article. It is very sad to get to know of the people and the bravery of those who lost their lives. I admire their spirit and understand the need for healthy, clean, volunteer based, uplifting, spirit building, nature connecting, environment sensitivitising motives of these trekking activities – and how far they go into helping us respect our natural and beautiful treasures.
    — it has nothing to do with what the govt intends to do and what it actually ends up creating in so far as all their endeavours are concerned, whether in wildlife parks or other zones such as mangrove boating etc. Usually their creations are full of bureaucracy, greedy guides (who won’t budge until their tip is ensured), ugly and not looked after buildings and more often than not a ‘time pass’ for ordinary ‘tourism’.
    Of course now because of this tragedy, the Govt will do only what it know so well to do: Impose a Ban: its easy, simple, shows authority, and a mindset that thinks it has solved the problem – victoriously.
    Its a sad world. I wish there was more wisdom out there.

  8. Sanket Mohapatra says:

    Why are you promoting CTC?? Are you getting commission from them to defend themselves??

    Forest Department Acts According to its rules and regulations and code of conduct

    The Government of Tamilnadu has not given special powers to Tamilnadu Forest Department

    In Tamilnadu, Higher powers are given to the police department and IAS officers!!….

    So, Stop Blaming Forest Department and first examine your government

  9. Aarthy says:

    Iam no member of CTC but a huge admirer of this group. I only ask this question to myself. If the corrupted politicians roam freely and those who allegedly lit fire can be let free….where is this country heading to??

  10. Ravindran says:

    Unfortunate to lose my friend Nisha in this Tragedy. Only God knows if this mishap was man made or natural. After seeing so many commissions in India’s political history including the Bhopal gas tragedy that shook the nation, no Aam Adhmi in India will have the confidence of seeing a fair report that may expose the Govt machineries inefficiency. Everything will be forgotten after the next SENSATIONAL NEWS. India is Shining.

  11. Thinker says:

    There is a flaw in the CTC setup. People who undertake this kind of strenuous trek should be qualified to face the adversities of nature in these conditions. So CTC and its organisers are at fault for the tragedy. Why do you take such people who cannot even follow the escape route of the leaders? why the able guys like Vibin, Arun have to sacrifice their lives? The death toll would have been much less if the trekkers had trekking ability of their own.

    • Kumar says:

      Even the MOST experienced mountain climbers along with their even more experienced expedition guides have lost their lives in Everest and other mountain climbs. It is not always ‘qualification’ or ‘ability’ that saves the lives. Even the well trained and qualified people who were employees of Fire Brigade have lost their lives in some of the fire incidents in India and across the world. I do not blame the heroes like Vibin and Arun in this case. They gave their best till their last breath. I only salute them!

  12. Prashanth V says:

    Someone set the grass on fire. That the wrong deed had been committed, nothing can change that but going forward, its an unfortunate incident leading to tragic consequences but that does not mean that just because the air is polluted we stop breathing. In the same way it’s very immature of our govt to start a blame game when no one really was interested in knowing. It happened, yes. What’s the learning from this, the govt should instead open more avenues, have trekking clubs. Employ more tribal youth to guard the forests,bring in locals to help, help them help themselves.

  13. Padma says:

    CTC will have to accept responsibility for not informing the families of the trekkers about the disaster. Many were unaware of the tragedy till they watched it on the tv news, late into the night.

  14. Manepalli Vinay Babu says:

    My suggestion is that there has to be a signature campaign as CTC has definitely touched every sportsman’s life/memory through their various events. Victimising a person/organisation/govertment even before initiating a basic enquiry is unfortunate. Govt. must work towards engaging such organisations in a better way rather than harassing them especially when these are being run for “no profit” and all costs get accounted by end of the trek/event.

  15. Manepalli Vinay Babu says:

    Friends………reviewing a comment before posting it for public view is not acceptable. Allow all kinds of views to be aired.

  16. Siva says:

    Please people can really understand what has happened and what CTC does to chennai and its environment. Even I can see some one speaking in TV arguments who does not know not even a single point about them. We unfortunately lost many lives, it has been an accident, which is inevitable at that point of time due to many reasons which no body can clearly realize. Why some one from Belgium organize with some volunteers to clean our nochi kuppam and adayar river every week, plant and maintain trees around chennai. Groups like this need to survive to make more awareness on personal health, environment and healthy lifestyle.

  17. Venkat says:

    Thanks for this fact and hope, whatever wriiten is true.. It’s a sad state of affairs seeing knee jerk unreasonable reaction from lots of ppl n media against trekkers n organisers. I again reiterate the fact that such mishap can occur to any commoners visiting any Hill station. These trekkers have not gone to trek in a Volcano. They just went to a normal forest. Deep condolences to the victims n their near ones. Authorities should take measures to strengthen safety through technological advances.

  18. Kumar says:

    CTC is not a new or unknown organization in Tamilnadu. CTC organizers had received many acclaims from media, sports lovers, public and government for their services to community. All these people who acclaimed CTC team are well aware their activities. Why none of them observed the risks involved their activities? Why they have not reviewed the safety of both organizers and the participants? Why they have not put process to audit their activities on regular basis? What is the point now in doing a postmortem and putting the blame on the people who lost their lives while trying to save the rest?

  19. Opendro says:

    We love CTC for its members and for what they do. Really sad turn of events and it just doesn’t get over. Hope to see these wonderful folks back in action.

  20. Dharam says:

    We love ctc. Dont worry we will all be fine.

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