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Colombo
Uni. students left in the cold Colombo University lecturer, Dr. Indika Karunathilake, who accompanied the 138 university students on the hike said, no police rescue team came to their aid and once the fatigued group groped its way to safety, in the morning, all that the police did was to arrive at the scene and take down the names of the students. "No arrangements had been made to even provide any refreshments for the utterly exhausted students," Dr. Karunathileke said in his internal report, to the Colombo University authorities. When The Sunday Times contacted an officer at the Kandy fire brigade, he said although the fire brigade was equipped to handle rescue operations, the police had not sought their assistance. The group of students from Colombo University's Medical faculty had set out on May 14, to climb the Hantana mountain range. Describing the experiences of that unforgettable day, Dr. Karunathilake said after three hours of climbing, the group had reached a height of about 2, 000 feet above sea level. "When we started descending towards the second peak of the Hantana Mountain range, an unexpected thick fog enveloped us. It was so bad that we couldn't even see each other. It was only about five in the evening and that kind of thick fog was unusual for the time of year," Dr. Karunathilake said. "We had no option but to move on because we were afraid that the students would fall ill if they stayed out in the cold. Even if a rescue team had arrived we would have had to move on as it is not possible to bring any vehicles upto that spot. At this point we informed some families of the students and through them the police with the use of mobiles. "Our forward movement was extremely slow due to poor visibility and exhaustion. There was no clearcut path due to steep ridges. At some points we had to deliberately slow down to ensure the safety of the students. "After four hours of a painfully slow descent, we reached the bottom of the second peak of the mountain range .Here we sent one of the guides ahead of the rest to seek help. As we kept moving on or rather stumbling along in the growing fog, the police informed us they were unable to come to our rescue. They asked us to move on to the first peak and there some assistance would be made available. We started moving towards the first peak," Dr. Karunathilake said. "We suddenly saw some torch lights being flashed towards us. The bearers of these lights turned out to be members of the Peradeniya University Explorers' Club and the employees of the Swarnawahini transmission tower. They guided us towards the Swarnawahini transmission tower. "From here onwards the descent was easier and the group arrived safely to the base around 7.30 a.m. Although no police team came to our rescue they were there when we reached the base to video the last bit of the ordeal," Dr. Karunathilake said. Two girls from the group fainted during the latter part of the descent and had to be given first aid. They were later taken to the Emergency Care Unit of the Peradeniya hospital. This was more a precautionary measure and their situation was not serious, Dr.Karunathilake said. After being administered a drip they were fit enough to join the rest of the group for the return journey home. |
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