Stranded in Sri Lanka: 189 Indians, including 166 from TN, return to Chennai after cyclone ordeal

CHENNAI: As many as 189 Indian nationals, the majority from Tamil Nadu, returned to Chennai on an IndiGo flight from Colombo on Sunday night, after being stranded for three days in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah.

The passengers, comprising 166 from Tamil Nadu and 23 from other parts of India, had been left in dire conditions at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, with no access to food or water and suffering from sleep deprivation in the cold airport terminals.

"Irrespective of nationality, we were all just human beings struggling to survive. For three days, we had no food or water. We spent two sleepless nights, shivering in the cold Colombo airport," one of the returnees recounted, capturing the collective trauma of the group.

The crisis began when Cyclone Ditwah unleashed torrential rains and severe flooding across Sri Lanka, crippling air services at airports in Colombo and Jaffna for the past three days. The stranded Indians included tourists, business travellers, and a significant number of transit passengers who had chosen Sri Lanka as a stopover due to cheaper airfares, particularly those travelling from the Middle East to India.

Among them were Jenith and Seyed Abdul from Madurai. "We boarded a SriLankan Airlines flight from Riyadh on Thursday night for our transit through Colombo to Chennai," Jenith explained. "But our plane could not land in Colombo on Friday morning and was diverted to a small airport about 250 km away. We were stuck inside the aircraft for three hours there, then bused to Colombo airport, where there was no space even to stand."

Their plight came to light after reports surfaced in the Tamil media. The Tamil Nadu government took immediate action, contacting Indian diplomatic officials in Sri Lanka. Following this intervention, embassy officials rushed to the airport, providing the stranded passengers with essential supplies like food and water.

While special flights were arranged on Sunday morning to evacuate passengers to Thiruvananthapuram (two flights) and Mumbai (one flight), the large contingent of over 150 people bound for Chennai was left waiting, a point of deep frustration for the returnees.

"Why wasn't a single special flight arranged for us to Tamil Nadu, even though we were more than 150 people? We don't know," questioned a passenger.

Ultimately, the group had to book tickets on an IndiGo flight at their own expense to return home. "We have come back with just our lives and our hand luggage. That is enough for us now," said another passenger.

Their troubles, however, are not fully over. Their checked-in luggage remains missing in Sri Lanka. The passengers squarely blame the administration of SriLankan Airlines for the negligence. "We hope SriLankan Airlines will responsibly deliver our luggage to us. The way the airline's management has behaved has caused us immense pain," Seyed Abdul stated at the Chennai airport, marking a bitter end to their traumatic ordeal.