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Lost on the mountain

High drama in Balangoda as 115 students go missing

By Hiranthi Fernando

Armed with torches, can-dles, knives and poles, men, women and children searched through the night. The night was chilly and their hearts were cold with apprehension as they combed the mountain slopes.

Detenegala in Balangoda, was the scene of high drama last Sunday night, when 115 students and nine teachers from schools in the area went missing while climbing its forested slopes. When they failed to return after nightfall, worried parents and school authorities contacted the Police. Soon villagers and estate labourers from the neighbourhood too joined Police search parties, parents and teachers in combing the jungle. 

When news of the disappearance of this large party spread through the country next morning, alarm bells rang. Could the children have been abducted by the LTTE in the wake of the recent unrest in the hills? Fears ran high. The search continued with reinforcements from police stations in the area. Two Air Force choppers were rushed to the scene to assist and a police sniffer dog was also kept in readiness at Balangoda.

Much to everyone's relief however, around 10.30 on Monday morning the welcome news was received that the missing students and teachers were climbing down towards Hituwela, seven km away from where the group had started their climb. The nightmare was over.

Back at Balangoda Vidyaloka Kanishta Vidyalaya, on Wednesday, the eleven boys from the Year 11 Class, who had been on the Detenegala climb, with the happy resilience of youth, seemed none the worse for their ordeal. Showing us some leech bites and minor scrapes, from the safety of their school, they now regarded their experience as a great adventure.

"We started climbing around 9.30 in the morning with two forest rangers to lead the way," recounted Lalith Prasanna Ekanayake. The path was not too difficult but there were a lot of leeches. As we removed one, ten more would cling on our legs."

The path was through thick jungle. Twice they climbed a peak, realised it was the wrong one and climbed down again. By then they had finished the water they had carried with them. "We did not have our lunch then because we had no water," Upul Sampath Wijesinghe said. 

"The rangers said there was water on the mountain so we waited. But by about 3.30 p.m., when we still had not reached the top, we knew we were lost. We tried to find our way back by following a stream thinking it would lead to a village somewhere. Then it started raining. We collected the water dripping from the trees into our bottles and drank. We could not eat because it was raining so hard. After the rain ceased we found that our food had gone bad."

"We then found a river and followed it down hoping to come out of the forest," Lalith said. But instead they found they had reached a waterfall and could not proceed. The fall was swollen with the rainwater and it was too dangerous to attempt climbing down. It was dark and misty by then, save for a little moonlight filtering through by the river. They realised they could not proceed and their teachers decided to stay there for the night.

Since there were leech- es under the trees, the boys were instructed to place some large stones in the river to sit on. It was about 8 p.m. when they finished shifting the stones. "The girls were on one side of the river and we were on the other," Lalith said. "Because we were all together, we were not frightened," the boys said. " But we were shivering with cold.

" We tried to light a fire to keep warm but the wood was all wet. Finally we tore up our exercise books to stoke up the fire as well as our plastic bottles. We could not sleep for fear of falling into the river."

By morning, the teachers had found a path going down the mountain.

They left a note drawing a plan of the path they were following for any search parties and started the trek down around 7.30 on Monday morning. Some of the girls had to be carried down. "We saw the helicopter circling round as we started," Upul Wijesinghe said. "Master told us to wave and shout. They heard us and circled until we climbed down, helping to guide us." The party climbed down at Hituwela, where they were given some tea to assuage their thirst. They were then transported by the Police to Maratenna, where they received a grand welcome with food and drink laid out.

"We will never forget this experience," the boys said. "We learned a lot and made a lot of new friends, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim students. We are particularly grateful to the Tamil estate workers who searched for us, and brought us food on our way down. We heard they had even made vows for our safety."

Priyangika Sumudhu Kumari and Tharanga Damayanthi who were among ten participants from Morahela Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, said they were not really afraid because their teachers reassured them that they would be found. "However, we would think twice about joining such an excursion again," Priyangika said. "We were frightened when we lost our way," said Mohammed Rismy, who joined the excursion with 17 other classmates from the Balangoda RCC Tamil School. "Our parents got very worried and upset."

Mr. M.G. Wijeratne, Physical Education teacher at Udagama Maha Vidyalaya explained their trek up and down the mountains in great detail, illustrated by a diagram. He said though they had a forest ranger to lead the way, they had apparently taken a circuitous route which did not lead to Detenegala at all. 

"We took Pansil and started climbing at 9.20 a.m.," Mr. Wijeratne said. "As we entered the forest, the children enjoyed the natural surroundings. The path became progressively difficult and slippery and we had to hang on to creepers to keep our balance. There was no communication between the front and back of the party. The forest was so thick, I could only see about four rows of children ahead of me. It was only when we finally reached the river that we found a clearing and could see the whole party. At this stage, the forest ranger took three boys and left to look for a path down."

"Contrary to the various rumours that circulated, we had no fears of being harmed by anybody," Mr. Wijeratne said. "Our greatest problem was the intense cold. We had to ration the time each student could sit beside the fire, due to limited space. The children caused us no problems at all. They were able to handle the situation. We are grateful to the Police, the state, villagers and estate workers for their efforts on our behalf."

Galagama Buddhananda Himi, Principal of Udagama Maha Vidyalaya, some parents and the bus drivers who had gone to pick the group up from Maratenne had informed the Balangoda Police of the incident on Sunday night. 

"We immediately sent out search parties from Maratenna and from here," said W.M. Kumarasinghe, HQI of Balangoda Police. Constable Ranjith Premawansa who was among the search party said they found toffee wrappers, empty snack packets and other telltale signs of the children's progress along the way, but did not find the children. 

Sub Inspector Mahinda in charge of the Ma

ratenna Police Post said that when he got a radio message from the Balangoda Police, he had gone to the foot of the peak immediately. "The police search party went along with Tamil labourers from the nearby estates," S.I. Mahinda said. "When the children came down at Hituwela, we were still searching in the forest." 

Mr. A. Walmsley, Principal of Balangoda Vidyaloka Kanishta Vidyalaya had to cope with frantic parents. They all went to the foot of the mountain at about 10 p.m. "A team of estate labourers had searched the mountain already and returned," Mr. Walmsley said. "We met the three students who had come down with the forest ranger but the ranger was not there. The next day when we got the news that the children were climbing down at Hituwela, we closed the school early and went there." 

The children had by then been brought to the Udagama School where the Physical Education Camp was held. The District Medical Officer was there with a medical team. Other officials such as the Zonal Director of Education, the HQI, Balangoda Police, Divisional Secretary and Chairman, Pradeshiya Sabha had also gathered there and the situation was explained to the parents and the children handed over safely. Except for one child who was admitted to hospital with gastritis, the rest fortunately had only small wounds or leech-bites. 

The Zonal Director of Education, Mr. K. Warnasekera, explained that of the 135 schools in Balangoda, 11 schools were following the Physical Education programme as a selected vocational training subject. A three-day camp was held for Year 11 students at Udagama Maha Vidyalaya, since it was the closest to the Detenegala mountain. The children were given five written tests at the camp. Mountain climbing was the practical test. Mr. Warnasekera said the programme was part of the syllabus and undertaken with permission from the authorities. Six masters and three women teachers accompanied the students. It was unfortunate that they were taken on a wrong route, he said. Mr. Warnasekera was deeply appreciative of the villagers and estate workers who gave up a day's work to search for the children with the co-operation of the superintendent.

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