The great Ariyalur tragedy ( continued)
Even when we were half a mile away from the site of accident, we found that there was knee deep water all over. We had never before seen Marudhaiyaru ( which was a wild river and which usually got flash floods only) in spate swelling, swirling and whirling with full rage as on that day at that moment. It was water, water everywhere and we were warned and prevented by the local people who were knowledgeable about the area from moving closer to the railway bridge.
There were horrendous cries from hundreds of survivors from the compartments shouting for help. Actually what had happened was that in that early morning due to heavy rains upstream, the river got heavily flooded, with the water level in the river rising substantially above the railway track, submerging the track and the bridge completely and the driver had been running the train at its full stipulated speed in that semi darkness, unaware of the fact that the earthen embankment on the southern end of the bridge had been completely eroded with the sleepers washed away by floods and the rails hanging loosely without any support. When the train reached that spot in top speed, immediately the engine plunged into the river and got dragged to some distance before coming to a dead halt. At the impact that was created, part of the the engine went under water and part of the tender got bent, while the first four compartments got derailed and partly submerged under water, hanging precariously. The succeeding compartments were mostly above water on the track itself and some of the people in those compartments jumped into the river to save themselves from the disaster that caught them unawares not knowing of the dangerous swirls in the river, only to be washed away by the ravaging floods. Walking along the track , a rescue team from the Ariyalur station side comprising police and medical and other personnel reached the spot and tried to save as many lives as possible, warning others in the compartments just to remain in their place until they reached them. Meanwhile a relief train from Virudhachalam reached the spot in the next half an hour and by that time, water level had started receding and the onlookers started moving towards the survivors to help them.
Ear splitting and heart rending cries filled the air, many weeping, crying and shouting for help and many others wanting to know whether their kith and kin who travelled with them were safe and if so where. Bodies from the derailed compartments were removed with very great difficulty using welding machines and cutters. Passengers who were trapped on the top branches of the thorny trees nearby were rescued after some struggle and many good Samaritans came forward to extend unsolicited help to all those under distress in spite of the risk involved in such operations. The world is full of equal number of good and bad people and so even as succour was forthcoming from a sizeable number of people, there were bad elements in the village nearby who started exploiting the situation to their advantage unmindful of the depth and gravity of suffering of those struggling and surviving. Personal belongings of the victims were mercilessly looted and the bodies were thrown back and the struggling survivors pushed into the river. As per eye witness, the toll might be about 600, but as per official reports, it was restricted to 150. The bodies that were recovered were kept at the railway station for identification purposes and it was a pathetic and heart breaking sight to see the passengers and the relatives thronging in the station with the fond hopes of seeing their kith and kin alive, waiting near the dead bodies on the hope that they were likely to come back alive. I saw one person crying for two full days not able to believe and stomach the truth that his son was dead.
The big rumour that was doing rounds at that time was the death of one Savithri Ganesh who was mistaken for the famous star actor (actress) of those days Savithri who had just then married Gemini Ganesan, another famous actor of yester years. This wrong news spread like wildfire throughout the state until it was denied by the persons concerned. Later it was established that the Savithri Ganesh under question involved in the accident was different and she was one among a group of passengers going to Kanadukathan near Karaikudi.
To contribute to the general tension and uncertainty, there was a floating rumour at local level at Ariyalur that one Rayar, a newspaper agent, the only one from Ariyalur to get into the train at Ariyalur station that day, was carried away in the floods and his body could not be traced. For nearly ten days, his people waited to know about his whereabouts and in the absence of any information, they started performing his tenth day rites and suddenly and as if cinematically, right at that time came the news that Mr Rayar was alive in Damiapuram hospital. It seemed that he was thrown out of the train as he was travelling on the footboard and was caught on some tree branch on the southern side of the bridge which was inaccessible to the people at the Ariyalur side and was picked up by a team who came from Dalmiapuram side and admitted him, who was then in a semiconscious state in the hospital there. Only after eight days, he regained full consciousness and realised what had happened and where he was and wanted the hospital authorities to inform his family immediately about his survival and to ask them to come there to take him back home.
Meanwhile Lal Bahadur Sastry who was then the central Railway minister resigned taking moral responsibility for the accident. Thereafter to see such men of high nobility, integrity and character had become a thing of rarity in Indian politics. (It is an irony of fate however that the man who took on himself the moral responsibility for the accident should have died after a few years in Tashkent under mysterious circumstances). Continued
