What began as a trek to celebrate International Women’s Day, took a disastrous turn for Nisha Tamiloli, 30, here on Sunday. One of the organisers of the trek, she lost her life in the wildfire at Kurangani Hills.
She was part of the 24-member team from Chennai Trekking Club. “She was helping others escape the wildfire that evening though she could have found a way out easily,” said her cousin brothers R. Sivakumar and S. Vinoth. The grief-stricken family spoke about Nisha’s love for marathons and adventurous treks. An employee of L&T, she would be off to an NGO or for a clean-up every weekend, they said.
Her mother Anandhi broke down in front of Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and her father and sister Nirosha were distraught. They paced up and down the special burns ward hoping for updates, but which never came as Nisha had suffered 100% burns.
Another trekker from the same group, Anu Vidhya, daughter of Muthumalai, is battling for life at the Government Rajaji Hospital. Though she has suffered 90% burns, her family members say that she will stay strong.
An avid animal-lover, Anu Vidhya was looking to quit her job as a psychologist at Groove School, Alwarpet and begin her journey into animal assistance therapy, said her inconsolable uncle S. Kumaran. “She was training to trek in the Himalayan range. She is very confident that she will be back. That breaks my heart more,” he said. A total of six members with severe burns (between 40-100%) were admitted at the GRH, here on Monday morning. Several were shifted from Bodinayakanur GH to the GRH here as it is the referral centre. A total of seven members are at Apollo Hospital (2), Meenakshi Mission (2) and Grace Kennett Foundation (3).
