The district administration has installed solid state buzzer that would reign in on tourists following deaths of as many as 24 lives in Hogenakkal falls.
The motion sensor equipped buzzer has been mounted on bright orange posts in two crucial spots. Any movement past the sensor would trigger off the alarm to sound full one minute duration. “The purpose is to alert other tourists as well in a way that would pressurise recklessly adventurous persons to step away from the danger zone,” says Janaki Raman, Hogenakkal fire service officer. The casualty figures since March has been alarming with March recording five deaths; April-11 deaths; May- four deaths and June-four deaths so far with the latest casualty registered on Thursday.
The administration concerned over tourists’ safety closed the hanging bridge to prevent tourists from crossing over to the rocky edges that holds out a breath-taking view of the main falls. The shutting down of the hanging bridge has never really gone down well with the tourists, say locals. Yet, a reckonable number of casualties are caused, when tourists take a dip in the river from a coracle ride, under the watch of the coracle riders. This is the first such safety buzzer in a tourist spot in Tamil Nadu.
