Four months after a forest fire killed 22 trekkers in Kurangani hills, the inquiry report on the circumstances leading to the tragedy was submitted by a senior IAS official to Chief Minister K Palaniswami today.
The contents of the report are not known immediately.
The tragedy occurred on March 11 when two groups of people -- 24 from Chennai and 12 from Tirupur and Erode districts -- were returning after trekking expeditions to the Kurangani Hills in the Western ghats falling under Theni district, over 540 km from here.
A wild forest fire engulged the hills, killing 11 of the trekkers while as many succumbed to injuries at various hospitals in subsequent days.
The trekkers included 25 women and three children.
On March 14, the state government had named Misra as the enquiry officer to probe the wild fire, asking him to look into the circumstances leading to the incident, review the procedure in the Forest Department for regulation and permission for trekking in reserved forest areas.
The senior IAS officer was tasked with submitting a report within two months, along with recommendations to avoid such incidents.
"The circumstances leading to this incident of forest fire, as well as trekking without proper permission from Forest Department in forest fire prone area needs to be enquired in detail," a government order had said.
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