COIMBATORE: A 48-year-old man from Tiruchy was found dead at Velliangiri Hills on Sunday morning.
The deceased, identified as P Kumaravel of Manapparai, was found unconscious on a rock on the seventh hill, about 50 metres from the peak, by fellow devotees around 3.30 am. The devotees informed the forest staff posted on crowd control duty. The staff, in turn, informed a doctor at the camp set up at Isha Yoga Center on the sixth hill. After he was taken to the camp, the doctor confirmed that he had died.
Boluvampatti Forest Range Officer K Jayachandran said, "We suspect that he may have died of a heart attack based on signs. Fellow devotees also noticed him holding his chest before falling unconscious. Since no friends or relatives initially came forward to take responsibility for transporting the body to the foothills, which takes about six-seven hours from the seventh hill, we spent over `35,000 to hire doli workers and a private ambulance to take the body to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital," he said.
It may be noted that seven persons have died due to various health complications so far this season, between February 1 and May 31.
Forest department sources said a total of 4,92,181 devotees have climbed the hills this season, and the number is expected to increase in the coming weeks.