The tragedy at Thekkady is the biggest boat accident seen by Kerala.
The last major accident occurred at Kumarakom in Kottayam district in 2002 in which 29 travellers of a passenger boat died. This was followed by the accident in Thattekad near Kothamangalam in which 18students and teachers, who were on a picnic from their school, died.
In both cases, overloading was one of the factors that led to the accident.
The first recorded boat accident in Kerala occurred in 1924 in the Pallana River of Alappuzha district in which one of the triumvirates of Malayalam poetry Kumaranasan died. The accident had claimed 24lives including that of the poet.
As many as 29 died in an accident that occurred near Kumbalangi in Ernakulam district in 1980. Another accident at Vallarpadam in the same district claimed 18 lives in 1983.
The other accidents that occurred in Kerala during the last two decades were the following with the deaths in brackets: Peppara dam, Thiruvananthapuram (7), Iritti River, Kannur (4), Punnamadakayal, Alappuzha (3), Kallar, Thiruvananthapuram (8), Munambam, Ernakulam (3), Kochi backwaters, Ernakulam (5), Vellayikode, Kozhikode (6), Kappad beach, Kozhikode (4), Aluwa, Ernakulam (4).
