Despite the efforts of the forest department to provide basic amenities to the tribal villages, such as roads and street lights, medical facilities remain hard to come by. Medical camps are occasionally conducted in these villages, but oftentimes when an emergency arises, the villagers have to travel long distances into the plains in search of proper medical attention.
Tirupur: In the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve area near Udumalai in Tirupur district, there are more than 20 hill villages, including Kurumalai, Kuzhipatti, Mavaduppu, and Thalinji, in the Udumalai Amaravathi forest range.
Although the forest department has supplied basic amenities to tribal settlements such as roads and street lighting, medical facilities remain elusive. Though medical camps are held in these villages from time to time on behalf of the health department, they have to go to the plains for emergencies. Palaniswami's health deteriorated in Gurumalai village on Tuesday evening.
Since there was no way to reach the government hospital, they tied it to a pole in a cradle and carried it away. They travelled 6 km on the rocks from Kurumalai to Kuzhipatty, and from there they walked on a 9-km road route and carried them to Ponnal Amman Shola.
They were then taken to the Udumalpet government hospital.
Meanwhile, Palaniswami died at the Udumalpet government hospital after reaching late.
As a result, it is not an exaggeration to say that it has been a long-standing demand of the tribals to provide permanent medical facilities in the hill villages of the Amaravathi range such as Kurumalai, Kuzhi Patti, Maavathiruppu, Mullu Petti, Thalinji, and Eesal thittu.