Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers died and 11 fell sick and were hospitalised because of heatstroke during their training on the outskirts of Gwalior on Monday.
The troopers (jawans) were part of a new batch that came on Sunday from Baramullah, 50 km north of Srinagar, where the previous training session was held. They took the train to Gwalior, 450 km north of Bhopal, from Jammu.
The condition of 10 jawans was stable while one was critical, doctors at the hospital said.
Among the deceased, DC Kothari and K Vinayakam, both in their early forties, were from Tamil Nadu. It could not be established who the third person was.
The age of the 11 hospitalised is between 40 and 45.
Travel fatigue, along with extreme heat conditions (45ºC in Gwalior), is said to be the cause of the deaths and sickness. The lowest average temperature in Baramullah is 5 degree Celsius currently.
Riaz Ahmed, a hospitalised CRPF trooper, said the temperature variation was responsible for the tragedy.
He said that the camps of the troopers did not have protection from the heat wave.
DIG GVH Giri Prasad, Superintendent of Police Gulab Singh and other officials were among those present at the hospital but refused to talk to the media.
Senior officers seemed to be in the dark about the names of the troopers (hospitalised and deceased) and as a result, doctors faced a tough time completing the legal formalities. The hospital register record in the casualty department was kept blank for want of details about the patients till the evening.
{{/usCountry}}Senior officers seemed to be in the dark about the names of the troopers (hospitalised and deceased) and as a result, doctors faced a tough time completing the legal formalities. The hospital register record in the casualty department was kept blank for want of details about the patients till the evening.
{{/usCountry}}Dr SS Jadon of the casualty department said that the cause of the deaths could be ascertained only after post-mortem.