Noted
herpetologist Dr Bhupathy Subramaniam, 51, died after he slipped down the
sloping rocky peak of the Agasthyamalai hills on Monday. As he slipped into a
near-free fall, his face crashed into a bamboo cluster below and a pointed
bamboo stalk broke and struck deep into his left eye like a dagger.Dr Bhupathy breathed
his last during the 13 hours it took to carry his body, with the sharp bamboo
piece pierced on the eye, by his assistants, tribal guides and forest officials
from the spot of the fall, some four km above the Athirimala base camp, to the
Kunnatheri Kani settlement, 25-odd kilometers downhill.
A principal scientist
at the Salim Ali Centre for Orinthology and Natural History (SACON), Dr
Bhupathy was heading a three-year study on the patterns of distribution of
selected faunal groups on the Agasthyamalai hills. He was there to check the
progress of the research project.“It happened while we
were coming down the peak by around 1.30 p.m. Though he had used the rope to go
up the peak, he came down in a sliding position, his back facing the rock
front,” said Mr V.J. Jins, the junior research fellow who was with Dr Bhupathy
when the accident happened.“Suddenly he lost
control and started to fall down the rock face. He fell on a bamboo cluster and
crashed face down on the ground. When we turned him around, we found a broken
bamboo piece struck inside his left eye. But there was no bleeding. There was
no head injury or other serious injuries,” Mr Jins said.It did not seem that
Dr Bhupathy was in pain but he was in a state of deep shock. “He could
recognise us but could not speak. He looked breathless. And he was reflexively
trying to pull out the bamboo piece from his eye,” Mr Jins said.
Prof. John Kurakar
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