Even as the death toll in the tragic stampede at Uppupara in Idukki district of Kerala rose to 104, authorities are still searching for more than half a dozen pilgrims who are still missing.
Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac who is personally overseeing the arrangements at theKumily Thaluk Hospital, the search is on for any of the pilgrims who have ran into the nearby forest areas or remained cought in the area. He said the government has already taken steps for the disbursal of interim financial assistance for the victims. Speaking to The Hindu he said the government would bear all the expenses for taking the bodies to their respective home towns.
Meanwhile the post mortem procedures commenced at the Kumily Thaluk Hospital by seven in the morning. By 10 am, 55 bodies have been identified.
According to Kumar, one of pilgrims who came to Uppupara after darshan at Sannidhanam to witness the makarajyothi, said the authorities had made no arrangements for crowd control at the site. The stampede
started when some of the pilgrims ran helter-skelter after an over crowded auto rickshaw lost control and ran into a jeep which over turned and fell on the pilgrims who were coming back after witnessing the holy jyothy.
Meanwhile, P T Thomas, Idukki MP, said the tragedy was waiting to happen. “ The plans being charted out for ensuring facilities to the
Sabarimala pilgrims don’t take into account the large number of pilgrims coming via Kumily. There are at least four vantages points in idukki district where the pilgrims can witness the jyothi-Panchalimedu, Parumthumpara,Moozhickal and Uppupara. Though lakhs of devotees use these areas during the pilgrimage, the authorities have not taken note of this,” he said.
According to him, though the authorities have taken precautionary measures at Parumthumpara, the arrangements for Uppupara was dismal, he said.
Interestingly, forests authorities pointed out that the call to block the Vandiperiyar-Vallakkadavu-Uppupara route to the Sabarimala pilgrims had been made for the past so many years. In fact, the Sabarimala Master Plan too called for developing the Sathram area as a base camp and allow trekking from there to Uppupara. The Pullumedu areas was highly vulenrable and it was also difficult from the point of view of crowd control.
However, nexus between the local taxi operators ahdn a section of the authorities had helped the continued operation of the path through the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
