TIRUNELVELI
The annual three-month-long season at Courtallam that commenced on a roaring note on Saturday last with a mesmerising climate and floods in the Five Falls and the Main Falls has lost its sheen with water flow in the falls dwindling fast and the intermittent drizzle playing a truant.
After the South-west monsoon became active along the Western Ghats, all waterfalls at Courtallam started receiving good influx of water since Friday afternoon and the Main Falls and the Five Falls experienced floods in the night. The climate was also electrifying with intermittent drizzle and breeze.
On receiving photographs of the swelling waterfalls on WhatsApp, tourists from various parts of Tamil Nadu landed at Courtallam on Saturday morning and the sudden surge in the crowd caused traffic congestion in the tourist spot. There was a decent flow of water in the falls till Sunday night and the climate was energising.
Even as the visitors hesitantly started leaving Courtallam for their destinations on Sunday night, the flow of water in the waterfalls dwindled and the flow on Monday morning was far from satisfactory. The climate was so hot on Monday. Situation worsened further on Tuesday as the flow lost its vigour and there was no drizzle throughout the day.
“This is quite disappointing and disturbing. We expected that the roaring start of the season would sustain at least for a week to attract more tourists. However, the drizzle vanished on Monday and the flow of water in the falls became thin on Tuesday. Nature should not let us down this year too as we suffered a hefty loss last year,” said Shenbhaga Moorthy, a youth who arranges houses with cooks for larger groups of tourists staying at Courtallam for a few days.
“The weathermen’s prediction that the South-west monsoon would further advance into Tamil Nadu during this week has rekindled our hopes and we expect a ‘good season’ and consequent crowd during this weekend,” said N. Balamurugan, a fruit vendor.
