Udupi: Monsoon Sets-in; Fear Looms over drowning in Manmade water Ponds

By Snehalatha, Udupi
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 28 May 2013: The monsoon has set in the Udupi district, while the fear of drowning in quarries and water ponds across the district has already begun..!

 
Its during the last monsoon, 15 children were drown in quarries and water ponds, 7 persons were washed away in flood waters of rivulets, altogether 22 precious lives were perished. 

 
The fears strikes one when thinking of such casualties, none can blame the monsoon because the tragedies are not the outcome of nature’s fury, instead are manmade. 

 

 
The children were drowned in deep ponds that are dug up to source clay.  The landlords in Kundapur and Brahmavar, near here allow the contractor to source the clay out of their fertile fields for monetary consideration.  The contractor sources the clay by digging deep in the earth’s crust and it remains unattended during monsoon.  The children who venture out during lull in monsoon either to play in water, fishing likely to be victims of drowning in such ponds. 

 
The quarries of both laterite and granite stone in Karkal taluk takes many lives during monsoon as they get flooded.  Both the landlord and contractor shirk their responsibility for the tragedy, while the government officers prepare false report because of nature’s fury and award a pittance of compensation to the families of kith and kin of deceased.  That’s it.

 
In spite of district administration instructed the landlords to fence such locations, they were left unguarded.  Owing to this, the parents had to be cautious of their children.

 
 
 
Series of tragedy in last monsoon:
 
The tragedy begun in the beginning of last monsoon wherein 3 children were drowned in an unguarded water pond in Hattiyangady village in Kundapur taluk, near here on July 1, followed by 2 engineering students drowned in Mannapalla in Manipal of Udupi taluk, father and his four children perished in Koodlu village of Karkal taluk, 2 children in Kota, 4 children in Hattiyangady, Saibarakatte, Kandloor and Beloor village, near here were perished in manmade ponds.  Three girls were drowned in a water-filled quarry in Sooda village when they have gone for a swim.