Chennai: The blame game is on over the Kurangani fire tragedy. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle as both parties are equally culpable for the tragedy, admitted a highly placed official source privy to the investigation.
“And for this reason, a local forester is placed under suspension and departmental inquiry against a few others is on. But, at the same time, the Chennai Trekking Club had organised a series of illegal treks in the recent past and we are collating details of all the illegal activities of the club and there are also cases in which CTC has been also punished by the foresters of neighbouring states”, the official told DC.
A confidential internal CTC mail available with DC, shared by one of the former members, had revealed that the CTC founder Peter Van Geit, a Belgian national settled in India, had organised several treks without forest department permission.
According to the confidential mails available with DC and dating back to November 18, 2010 (7:16 PM) “Peter wrote to the participants of Chennai trekking club - due to circumstances I was unable to obtain permission from the forest department for this mission. No big deal - I have not taken permission for any of my ten past DOAs (it is part of the thrill). Just remember that in case of the very minimal chance that we get caught all of us might have to pay up 1K fine (per head). I assume that it is okay with you guys. The forest officials simply made it too hard this time”.
The former member of CTC blamed both the forest department and the club for the tragedy, while sharing the mails dating back to 2010 that expose both Peter and the TN forest department.
The CTC is blaming the local farmers for the fire that engulfed the area, killing 11 of the trekkers and said that they had taken all permissions mandatory for the trek.
In a statement posted online, the CTC blamed the local villagers for starting the fire and said it had experienced trekkers on board to assist the team.
The CTC was not allowed to take novices to the expedition, they said. Besides, permission was given only if the trekkers had proper guides from the area, they added. CTC, in its statement, condoled the death of its members and said it had lost some of its most valuable trekkers trained over the past seven years.
Regularisation module for trekking to come out soon
The state disaster management authority and the forest department are to come up with regularisation module for trekking in Tamil Nadu. Activists and ecologists admit the need for regularisations as there is no transparency with forest department. They also felt that that trekking should not be banned but regularised.
According to officials investigating the tragedy it is revealed that there is a heavy shortage of forest guards in the area with only 50 per cent of the required strength of 107 personnel monitoring the 3,000 hectares of forest area. There are only 57 serving personnel in the area and there is no continuous monitoring due to the increased work schedule, sources said. "We are evaluating on the tragedy and are finding what went wrong, already a circular has been issued to district forest officers to take precautions on forest fire and restrict the movement of public inside core jungle", a forest department insider said hinting soon a government to regularise trekking is likely to be issued, he added.
It may be noted that the state government on Monday ordered a probe into the incident and promised action against those who allegedly organised the expedition without permission. The Chief Minister has announced a solatium of '4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased in which eleven have died till date.
