104 dead in Sabarimala ; list of those dead

Vandiperiyar, Jan 15: Sabarimala leaves an eerie silence after tragedy struck the hill shrine on Friday night following the 'Makara Jyothi' celebrations. The spot where the stampede broke out leaving over 104 dead has been a traditional forest trekking path used mostly by devotees from Tamil Nadu to reach the hill shrine of Lord Ayyaappa.

The area is known as ''Pulmedu'' as it is a large stretch of grassland in Periyar Wildlife Reserve in the Western Ghats. The trekking route is a short-cut for pilgrims from places like Cumbom, Theni and Madurai in Tamil Nadu to reach and return from Sabarimala.

The accident spot is located 24 km from Vandiperiyar, a small plantation town on Tamil Nadu borders. According to Aneesh, a local rescuer, an unusually large number of people had converged in the area as it was one of the best spots to witness the ''makar jyoti'', considered as a divine light that flickers across the eastern horizon after the ''arti'' at the Lord Ayyappa temple.

The ''Makara Jyoti'' is the finale of the two-month-long pilgrimage during which over 30 million devotees visit and worship the temple. One of world''s most famous forest temples, there are three routes for devotees to reach the shrine-- Kottayam to Pampa, Erumeli-Pampa and Vandiperiyar to Sannidhanam. Though vast majority of devotees prefer the first two routes, people from south central Tamil Nadu take the Vandiperiyar route.

According to eye witnesses, one to 2 lakh people were returning through the grassland route yesterday.

The list of people dead in the stampede are -

KERALA
Korukutty-Vengara - Malappuram
Unnikrishnan - Kottatharayil- Thrippunithura

KARNATAKA
Suresh -Mysore
Deepesh N.S-Kallari -26 yrs
Manjunadhu -Karvadi 26 yrs
Budhi Ghokkas 30 yrs
Seetham Ghokkas 26 yrs
Puneshathu Ghosh 45yrs
Babu -Mysore
Sivalinga Iyer - Murukkodu Medu
Malleswar -Kurkkatty - 26 yrs
Bassu ghokhar
Manju nath 21 yrs
Vishnu Murthi 25 yrs
Sabu Rao

ANDHRA PRADESH
Arun Methak 20 -A P
Raju -Ongole district
Sreenu - 26 - Nalgonda
S Aravind - Manjeswaram
Ram Babu Reddy
Sangam - 30 yrs Ramakkot, Karur Nagar

TAMIL NADU
Ambarassu - Dharmapuram
Murukeshan - 50yrs- Ooty
Rajaratham - 30yrs - Pollachi
Anju Kumar - 34yrs - Pollachi
Krishnan - 40yrs- Dharmapuram
Raman - 25 yrs -Kudulur
Raj kumar - 30yrs - Melur -Ooty
Selraj - 40 yrs - Thirunelveli
Ramachandra - Madurai
Selvaraj - 38 yrs - Thirunelveli
Arun - 20 yrs - Madhurai
Ayyappan - 30 yrs - Dharmapuri
Madhu - Chennai
Govindraj - Mettupalayam
Prasanth - 44 yrs- Salem
Krishna prasanthan - 34 yrs - Chennai
Subramanian - 32 yrs - Kanjeepuram
Sangam - 35 yrs - Thuthukudi.

(Updated at 3:02 PM)

PTI