Gunpowder storage was a chronic problem during the black powder era.  In 1821, the improper disposal of damaged gunpowder at Chitradurga Fort took the lives of two British officers and their two servants. As reported in the Asiatic Journal the following year, these men were on the hill as part of a picnic party.  Separated from the others, “their path lay by a magazine of some damaged gunpowder, which had been emptied; near this was a cave into which the lascars, from idleness, and thinking no harm could arise, had thrown part of the powder, instead of depositing the whole in a well used for that purpose. Some of the party had segars, and it is supposed that an end was thrown into the cave by one of them, unconscious of any danger. The whole exploded, and these unfortunate officers, with two of their servants, were in an instant hurled into eternity” (Anonymous 1822).

Reference Cited

Anonymous (1822) “Further Particulars of the Death of Capt. Nelthropp and Ensign Powell”, in The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, Vol. 13, p. 185.