COIMBATORE: A 23 year-old youth died while descending from the Velliangiri hills in the wee hours of Friday. This is the fourth death at Velliangiri hills this season.
The deceased has been identified as S Mukesh Kumar, a native of Dharmapuri, and is currently in the fifth year of D-pharm at a private college at Telungupalayam.
According to forest sources, the incident occurred at the fifth hill when he was returning to the foothill after trekking and worshipping Lord Shiva at the seventh hill along with his eight other friends.
Mukesh Kumar complained of chest pain and fell unconscious. One of the doctors, who was also trekking the Velliangiri hills came to his rescue and immediately performed CPR to revive him. The doctor also informed the forest department staff to bring an injection from the first hill, where a medical camp has been set up, through the wireless phone available with the forest staff who are on duty.
"When our staff was heading to the fifth hill from the first hill with the injection, Mukesh Kumar died and the doctor subsequently declared him dead at 2 am on Friday," said K Jayachandran, Forest Range officer of Boluvampatti.
With the help of Dolly workers, the body of the deceased was brought to the foothill at 8 am on Friday. Alandurai police took the body to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) for postmortem. The exact cause of death will be known only after getting autopsy results. The deceased also had a seizure earlier," he said.
The body was handed over to their relatives on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, the number of devotees visiting Velliangiri hills has increased this year when compared to the previous year crowd.
"A total of 2.5 lakh devotees had visited between February 1 and May 31 in 2025. However, with two more months left for the completion of the closure of this season, as many as 2,83,996 devotees visited up to March 28. We are expecting more crowd during Shivarathiri," the official said.