Safety plan rolled out for Aadi Amavasai trek to Sathuragiri

Madurai: With lakhs of pilgrims expected to converge on Sathuragiri Hills in Madurai district for Aadi Amavasai on July 24, the district administration has issued an exhaustive safety plan to keep the annual trek safe and plastic-free.

Chairing a multi-department meeting on Friday, collector K J Praveen Kumar directed police, forest, revenue, health, and transport officials to turn the narrow Western Ghats trail into a one-way circuit and to admit pilgrims only between 6am and 3pm from July 19 to 25. Police will erect checkpoints at Thaniparai and other base points to bar liquor, fireworks, and single-use plastic, while forest guards will patrol to prevent devotees from straying into the core wildlife zone that shelters the endangered grizzled giant squirrel.

The Hindu religious and charitable endowments department will install 750 solar and generator-backed lights and place 100 garbage bins. Fifty prefabricated toilets, drinking-water tanks, and rest sheds will dot both the Thaniparai and Vazhathoppu approaches; 10 dolis will be kept ready for elderly or injured trekkers.

Ambulances will be stationed and 30 medical teams will be fielded with antivenom, oxygen cylinders, and ice boxes at seven points, including Sathuragiri summit, Thaniparai, and Sangilipaarai.

The fire and rescue services will establish a temporary control room near Karuppasamy temple. TNSTC will operate special buses from Madurai, Rajapalayam, Srivilliputhur, Sivakasi, and T Kallupatti to Thaniparai, but services will halt after dark to curb night-time trekking. Highways' engineers have been told to patch potholes, install speed breakers, and warning boards, while Tangedco will vet all temporary electrical hook-ups at food stalls and annadhanam counters.

Revenue officials, supported by executive magistrates, will clear encroachments around the Thaniparai bus stand and oversee crowd discipline. The collector asked every department to complete its assigned tasks well before the first batch of pilgrims arrives.