“Gods own Country to Heaven”-Thekkady Tragedy

Author: Rajesh Madhavan

Its almost a month after the Thekkady boat accident. A news that gave the evening of October 1, 2009 a pitch black color with blood red stains, at the wild life sanctuary in Thekkady. Once again the passive attitude of the government servants resulted in the death of 45 innocent people. Though the news does not have the flashy accompaniment of a Terror strike, but it did took 45 lives. People came there to see the beauty of mother nature and appreciate her serene and soothing care. Alas! every thing went the other way around for them- Straight to Heaven from “Gods own country”. Even I had been to this place long back. It was during the final years of my engineering studies. I loved the greenery there; a place surrounded by forest and an extensive water body.

I was always scared of waters, be it a small pond or a swimming pool in a water theme park. I was always apprehensive to get into waters. Boat riding was always a night mare to me. The reason for this fear being the fact that I don't know how to swim. I tried several times but could manage only a little bit- to keep myself floating on still waters. The boat ride through the waters of Thekkady was really a memorable one,  its more memorable as I kept my fingers crossed not just because of excitement but also because of fear. The surprising fact was that all of us are into a boat with out any life saving accessories, in case of emergency. We completed the tour with lots of fun and fear and we reached our respective homes. I guess we were lucky enough to reach home safe.

This incident was next in the list of water accidents that happened in Kerala. Kerala is known for its high literacy rate and highly enlightened people. But when it come to issues like this. The turn around time for the law enforcement body is really deplorable. After the incident it took almost four hours for the Navy officers to reach the spot to start the search operations.  And since they came late they left the place with initiating the search operation. Hilarious!!! I don't know if they have helicopters' that fly. If they could have reached the spot within ten minutes and they could have saved more lives.

When we try to analyze, what could be the reason for this negligence??? Its funny to say this but one of the main reason for this, is the urge to reduce cost and make more profit- the profit earned on dead bodies. Here they don't care to keep a balance between production(Profit) and production capability(Boat). They concentrate on the production alone and there by affecting the production capability. They don't even care to upgrade or maintain the production capability till they land up to a major incident like the Thekkadi  tragedy. I salute the good memory of all the law enforcement bodies and common man, that they will forget everything and repeat the same later. All this incidents are just a news for the media. Media is also doing a nice play here they find it more spicy to report tragic incidents like this instead of proactively reporting the negligence and force the concerned authorities to take the necessary preventive measures. No wonder why even in the recession, India still have business with the MNC’s – cost cutting!!! we are the masters…

Suggestion:

1. I understand that when fun and curiosity combines we forget every thing about life and its safety. But still next time you go for any fun activities like this and if there is even a minor threat to your safety, DO NOT go for it and look for alternate options. Please don't take chances. What fun without life!!!