It could have been us!

Today at 5:15 pm, in an unfortunate incident at Tekkady in Kerala, a Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) boat overturned in the Periyar lake drowning 35 people to death (as per the recent count reported by a TV channel). The boat was carrying 76 tourists.

Tekkady is one of the main tourist spots in Kerala known for spice plantation and wild life sanctuary. It is about 140 Kms from Cochin and 105 kms from Munnar.

To see animals in their natural habitat, KTDC arranges boat rides through the Periyar lake. There are about 5-6 old boats named Jalyatra, Jalraja, Periyar etc. used for the purpose.



In one of these boats today, 76 unsuspecting tourist like us (including foreigners) excitedly started a 90 minute journey expecting to catch glimpse of wild animals. As they were returning, the boat tragically overturned.

As one of the local Kerala channel was listing the names of unfortunate tourists who drowned and died, a shiver ran through me - It could easily have been us! Just 48 hours back, it was me and Gurpreet who had taken one of these boats in Tekkady!

Two days back, even then, we actually feared a stampede - there was absolutely no readiness in handling big crowds. That being a long week-end, people were going one over the other, to board the boats from a small platform (lest they would not get a proper seat to sit). Women and children looked most vulnerable. That evening no more tickets were available and few were even sold in black!

I remember one of our co-passengers commenting to the boat guy- "These boats are very old, why don't you just throw them?" Unfortunately, in India no one thinks much of these comments (as so far nothing untoward would have happened). A tragedy is just lurking round the corner and people just don't seem to see it - till actually something happens and people lose their lives.

Just couple of months back, another person lost his life near Chennai during bungee jumping! One of my friends, who is interested in adventure sports, reported an alarming number of people dying in Goa, until recently, for the lack of safety measures. Just imagine, what all would be happening across India due to 'chalt hai' and 'it can't happen to us' attitude.

But the point is - are you safe as a tourist in India?
My answer is- I am not sure.
It could easily have been us.
Just 48 hours separated us from the unfortunate ones!