The holiday weekend and pleasant weather attracted huge crowds to Courtallam, leading to traffic jams in and around Five Falls Road, Old Courtallam Road and other stretches on Sunday.
With the southwest monsoon setting in, the district and surrounding pockets received steady inflow into the reservoirs over the last 10 days. In most of the dams, the water level rose up at least by one feet in the last two to three days. The falls in Courtallam too received steady inflow, resulting in floods sometimes, according to visitors.
The weather and permission to enter the falls after two years led many tourists to take a shower in the famous falls irrespective of the long queue. Police had a tough time dealing with the violators inside and outside the falls.
The shops and restaurants too witnessed long queues. Parking vehicles was tough as many tourists had left their vehicles in a haphazard manner. According to a resort manager, rooms were full in almost every lodge till Monday.
The dams, including Gadanadhi, Karuppanadhi, Adaivinaninar in Tenkasi district, and Papanasam and Manimuthar dams in Tirunelveli district received copious inflow in the last 24 hours, PWD officials said.
KANNIYAKUMARI
In neighbouring Kanniyakumari district, tourist thronged Theerparappu Falls since Saturday. Other locations including Gandhi Mandapam, Kamaraj Manimandapam and Thirupathi Thirumala Devasthanam temple were packed with tourists.
While the sun rise could not be witnessed, they were lucky to take a boat ride to Thiruvalluvar statue, a tourist from Bangalore said.
