Visuals show victims crying for water
About 25 trekkers, some of them women, are feared trapped in raging fire deep in the reserve forest atop the Kurangani hills near here even as massive rescue operations by multiple agencies, including the IAF, managed to rescue around 15 and rushed them to the government hospital with burn injuries.
First reports, obtained from video shots from mobiles used by some local rescuers, showed the victims, many of them girls, in great pain and crying for water. Some of them had their dresses in tatters and burnt, bodies badly burnt and bruised. They were terrible visuals.
“Forest officials could be at fault. They should have either stopped these people from going in, considering there have been sporadic and widespread forest fire during the last few days in the region”, said an official involved in the tough rescue operation, requesting anonymity.
The thick smoke, heat from the high flames and night fall made the rescue work difficult even as more help was expected.
It was not immediately known how long these people were stranded, but the news broke a little after 5 pm on Sunday when defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman took to Twitter to announce that IAF helicopters will join the operations to rescue those caught in the fire. State fire services sources said they got information from one of the trekking members at around 3 pm.