Post the shocking death of adventure duo from UK Turton Ian Richard and Michael David John Easton during their rafting expedition from Muthathi, the police seem to have woken up and have started curtailing the tourists to camp on the Cauvery shores. A police officer from Ramanagaram said that about 10 km river stretch between Muthathi and Mekedatu will be declared as ‘zero-tolerance’ zone where consumption of alcohol swimming in the river and fishing will be prohibited.
“To begin with we are checking the bags of tourists for alcohol and we are discouraging party revelers from cooking on the river shore. We are seeking the help of Forest Department officials to ban public entry at some points on river Cauvery where drowning is common. We are also deploying additional policemen during weekends when large numbers of tourists from Bengaluru and Mysore visit these spots,” said the police officer.
Every month close to 15 tourists who enter the Cauvery lose their lives. The picnic spots along the river — Mekedatu, Muthathi and Sangama — attract large crowds during weekends. The crowd becomes uncontrollable and the forest department — which controls the entry of tourists into the river — has been unsucesfull in stopping people. Both police the and forest departments have erected numbers of cautionary boards, despite which tourists risk entering the river. According to experts, Cauvery is extremly danger as it has sharp rocks at some points. The decrease in the river width increases the water current, creating uncontrollable whirls.