SAI Alappuzha centre reopens after suicide

The SAI Water Sports Centre in Alappuzha, which was closed down last week after junior rowing champion Aparna Ramabhadhran died following a suicide pact with three other young athletes, reopened on Monday as the trainees resumed their daily routine amidst a pall of gloom.
Of the 60 trainees, 45, including 15 girls, returned to the swimming centre on Monday while the other athletes are expected to join by Tuesday.
Bad weather meant that the training was not at full tilt but the wards were still put through their paces by the coaches. "We could not conduct training in the Punnamada lake today due to incessant rain and the presence of waterweeds. However, we conducted physical exercise sessions and held motivational classes for the trainees," a SAI official said.
A three-member team of psychologists under Dr V Pavithran, clinical psychologist of the privately-run Gokulam Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram, arrived at the centre on Monday evening.
The team will have interactive sessions with trainees to help them overcome the shock and trauma after Wednesday's incident.
The three girls undergoing treatment at the medical college here are showing good improvement, the doctors treating them said. Hospital superintendent Santhosh Raghavan indicated that they could be discharged after a week.
"They have started taking normal food and they are stable. We need to provide them with counselling which will begin after a day or two," he said, adding that they could not be interrogated now.
Meanwhile, five days after the incident, SAI authorities axed the Cerbera odollam tree from which the girls plucked and consumed the toxic pong-pong fruit.
The centre's assistant director Premjith F confirmed that the tree was felled on Monday. "Though all of us have seen this tree during our time here, we never thought it would one day become a villain. We have felled the tree," he said.
Incidentally, the incident has resulted in widespread destruction of pong-pong fruit in the district, with several residents felling the trees in residential premises.