The Tamil Nadu government has announced a solatium of ₹4 lakh each to the families of 10 trekkers who died in Kurangani forest fire in Theni district.

Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami said ₹1 lakh would be given to those who were seriously injured and ₹50,000 to those with minor injuries.

Rescue mission

On Sunday, a 36-member trekking team was caught in the fire in Kurangani-Kozhukumalai hills in Western Ghats located near Bodinayakanur, 40 km from Theni and 500 km from Chennai. Ten died, and the others were rescued by a joint search and rescue team of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Tamil Nadu forest department.

A city-based volunteer organisation, Chennai Trekking Club, is believed to have arranged the trekking expedition, which had members from Chennai, Erode and Tirupur districts. The club’s website says it has around 40,000 members as non-profit volunteers and organises hundreds of outdoor, sports, environment and social activities during weekday mornings and weekends.

Bodies recovered

In a tweet, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said IAF helicopters recovered all bodies and took them to the district hospital.

From Monday early dawn, one IAF helicopter put out the blaze in a limited area to enable rescue and airlift. It returned to Sulur Air Base on completing the task. An Advance Light Helicopter was also inducted into the operation early this morning, Sitharaman said.

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