For nearly three days, seven-year-old Madhav was unaware that his family was no more. On Wednesday, a happy Madhav was spotted at the Delhi airport, accompanied by his friend Gourilakshmi and her mother. His uncle Aneesh was there to receive him at the airport. He was then brought to their house at Sreepadmam in Mokavoor in Kerala.
Everyone in the house was inconsolable but the second-grader was playing happily with his friends. When relatives couldn’t find the right words to break the news to the boy, his teachers from Silver Hills Public school came in.
“I didn’t like Nepal. It was too cold there,” Madhav told his class teacher who visited him at his house on Thursday, reported Mathrubhumi.
Upon hearing the news, the teachers said that, at first he was shocked, then heartbroken, reported the media channel.
They then gifted him a cycle that distracted Madhav and the little one was seen showing off his bike to everyone in the neighbourhood.
How It All Happened
It was 1 am on Tuesday when the group of 15 tourists from Kerala reached Everest Panorama Resort in Nepal’s Daman. The temperature had dropped to 2 degrees and the surroundings were covered in snow. The families checked into the hotel and wanted to retire for the night.
Seven-year-old Madhav had slept off and so his parents left him in their friends' room. They, along with their younger kid, two-year-old son Vaishnav Renjith, then went to sleep in the adjoining room with Krishnan Nair’s family.
The eight of them never woke up after that.
Krishnan, Renjith, Ramkumar and Jayakrishnan had planned this fun vacation with their families to Nepal. They were returning from Pokhara in Nepal and made a rest-stop at Daman before they returned to India. They had booked two rooms at the resort in Makwanpur district.
But tragedy struck.
Renjith, his wife, and child, and Praveen Krishnan Nair, his wife Saranya and their three children – nine-year-old Sreebhadra, eight-year-old Aarcha and seven-year-old Abhi Nair – had stayed in the same large room for the night.
When the kids couldn’t handle the cold, they called the reception and asked for a room heater. The hotel authorities then arranged for an eight-foot gas heater which was brought from the restaurant to the room, to keep them warm.
Superintendent Sushil Singh Rathore of Makwanpur police said they could have suffocated to death due to the gas heater.
Norka Roots to Bear All Expenses
The post mortem reports are yet to come in.
The mortal remains of Praveen Krishnan Nair, his wife Saranya and their three children were brought via an Air India flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi and then airlifted to their hometown Thiruvanthapuram on Thursday. They were laid to rest in the backyard of their house.
The last rites for Renjith, his wife, and son, will be performed later today.
One of Krishnan’s friends had said there were difficulties in arranging money to transport the the bodies of the deceased. Norka Roots (Non-Resident Keralities), a department of the Kerala government, then assured to bear all the expenses involved.
The families said that the Indian embassy and the Malayali Association have been helping them with procuring airline tickets, postmortem procedures, accommodation and other issues.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had expressed “deep grief” over the incident.
“Deeply distressed by tragic news of passing away of eight Indian tourists in Nepal. Our Embassy in Nepal has been closely following the situation. Embassy officials are stationed at the hospital and providing necessary assistance,” said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.,
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali also expressed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and expressed shock over the incident.
‘Will Lodge a Complaint’
Nepal's Department of Tourism has formed a five-member committee to investigate if there were any lapses in the safety of tourists by the resort administration, PTI reported. The committee is required to submit the report within 15 days.
Kailashnath Iyer, a member of the Kathmandu Kerala Samajam, a Malayali association in Nepal, told The News Minute, “This is clearly a case of negligence from the part of the hotel. They should not have allowed the use of such heaters in a room.” He said he is planning to lodge a complaint against the hotel. Meanwhile, a family friend who is in Nepal now completing the formalities told a local channel that they too intend to hold the hotel accountable based on the postmortem reports.
Experts have pointed out that it is not safe to use an outdoor gas heater in a confined space.
A gas heater heats a room by burning LPG or other gases like propane and butane and their non-dependence on electricity make them quite popular in tourist destinations.
However, lack of proper ventilation in the room can cause carbon monoxide to build up. Inhaling this gas can lead to various health ailments including seizures, loss of consciousness, hypoxia (deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues) and even death.
“We are consulting with the Indian Embassy in Nepal and trying to register a case. As suggested by the Embassy, we will talk to the tourist police in Nepal and do the needful,” he told the media channel.
(With inputs from Mathrubhumi, The News Minute)
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