Fatal negligence

Dipender Manta

Negligence on the part of tourists in Himachal has proved fatal for them in the past few years. The excitement to click selfies with their mobile phones on the banks of the Beas and Parabti rivers in Kullu district has put several tourists in trouble and many of them have even lost their lives. But no one is ready to learn a lesson. 

After the Beas tragedy at Thalout in Mandi district in June 2014, the district administration installed warning boards on the banks of the river urging people not to venture close to it. Key entry points towards the river from the road have been fenced but tourists still ignore the warning and venture close to or into the Beas and the Parbati for fun.

Last week, two persons lost their lives in two such incidents in Kullu district. A tourist hailing from Guwahati was drowned in the Parvati near Kasol while another tourist from Darjeeling managed to swim to safety. Both had slipped off a boulder and fallen into the Parvati. In the second incident, a tourist from Faridabad slipped into the Parvati near Kasol and drowned. Such incidents are not new in Kullu and Mandi and are bound to happen in future as well if tourists do not follow the safety guidelines. The district administration needs to implement its directions strictly to save precious lives.

On June 8, 2014, 24 engineering students, six of them girls, from the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, and a tour operator drowned in the Beas. The tragedy took place at Shalanala village in the Thalout area of Mandi district as the river suddenly swelled following the release of water from the Larji hydroelectric project without prior notice.

As many as 48 students and three faculty members of the Hyderabad institute were on an educational tour to Manali. Some of them were getting themselves photographed on the banks of the Beas on the Mandi-Manali National Highway No. 21 when they were washed away by the surging river  

As many as 115 people were drowned in the rivers in Kullu district in the last five years. Seven raft drowning cases were reported in the district in the last five years.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Richa Verma says it is the duty of common citizens as well as tourists to follow safety guidelines strictly.