The Govt. of Tamil Nadu has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that unauthorized foray into forest territory by individuals caused the Kurangani fire tragedy in the State.

23 persons died when forest fire broke out and encompassed the area where a group of trekkers from Chennai had been climbing.  Caught in the sudden fire and without much training to handle such emergencies, the trekkers died a tragic death though 13 out of the 36 trekkers were saved in time by officials and fire-fighting personnel including those from the Army and the Air Force.

The February 11 tragedy is still fresh in the minds of the people of the State.  Govt. of Tamil Nadu set up a special committee to probe the cause for the huge human casualties.  In the meantime, an individual named Rajiv Dutta had moved the NGT seeking to know the reasons for the tragic accident and also to know what efforts have been taken post the tragedy to ensure such events don’t recur again in future.

A Bench comprising Javed Rahim, Wangidi and Nagin Nanda took up Dutta’s petition at the Tribunal’s sitting yesterday.  Tamil Nadu’s counsel Rajesh Sharma told the Tribunal in the form of an interim petition that unauthorized foraying into forest territory was the cause of heavy human casualty in the unexpected forest fire.  He sought more time to file a detailed report after which the Tribunal postponed the next hearing in the case to 02nd May.