Two persons, including Karthik Madhavan (43), Special Correspondent, The Hindu, Coimbatore, died, and 13 others were injured in an accident near Kopang on the Uttarkashi-Gangotri Highway on Sunday night.
Mr. Karthik had gone on a holiday to Uttarakhand to undertake a trekking expedition when the vehicle in which he and his fellow trekkers were travelling fell into a ditch. Ankur Kirola, founder, Nomad Adventures, who had organised the trek, said Mr. Karthik and Alka, a co-trekker from Aurangabad, were killed in the accident.
Mr. Karthik is survived by his parents Madhavan and Sujatha, and wife V. Haripriya, a Chief Sub Editor with The Hindu in Coimbatore.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Journalism, Bengaluru, Mr. Karthik started his career as a trainee reporter with The New Indian Express, Chennai in 2003, and later worked in Kancheepuram before reporting for The Deccan Chronicle, Chennai for a few months. He had joined The Hindu as Staff Reporter in Erode district in November 2005, where he covered a wide range of issues, with a lot of focus on rural reporting. He reported on agrarian issues extensively, and had a keen interest in covering organic farming.
In 2010, he moved to the Coimbatore news bureau and covered higher education, civic issues and politics. He was the first to report on the controversial appointment of an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) functionary’s daughter, who had no track record in urban governance, as Chief Executive Officer of Coimbatore Smart Cities Limited, in 2017. This eventually led to her resignation.
A very reserved person among colleagues, he would, however, passionately plunge into a debate on political issues. He would also guide journalism students while they were on training at The Hindu.
He took to photography two years ago. Armed with a DSLR camera, he would venture out to photograph birds and landscapes and post the pictures on Facebook.
Mr. Karthik always had a passion for biking and trekking. His vacations, of late, were spent trekking in tough hilly regions in the north, the last of which took him away on the fateful night on Sunday.
Expressing deep anguish over his untimely demise, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin on Monday announced a solatium of ₹5 lakh to his family.
The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Edappadi K. Palaniswami and former Minister S. P. Velumani said they were deeply pained over the death of the journalist. State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K. Annamalai hailed Mr. Karthik as “a gentleman reporter and a gem of a human being”. BJP Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan observed, “A person who loved Kashi and Ganga has lost his life in a holy land.”
The Coimbatore and Chennai Press Clubs condoled his death.
