Vanishing waterfalls of Shiradi

Mangaluru: Western Ghats, home to numerous waterfalls is turning grey. The various water bodies one could find right from the beginning of the Shiradi Ghats have lost their beauty as the waterfalls are now without any water. For the first time the barren stone walls behind the falls could be seen.

There used to be a flood of waterfall tourists visiting the waterfalls at least in 4 places between Surikumer and Siribagilu, Yettina halla and Kempuholay but what we now find there is just signs of waterfalls. True, the long South Western monsoon 2022 ended in November first week and already water bodies have dried up - Shirady- it is a hotspot for the perpetual aquifer system.

"We never went in search of water in this place ever since I came to live here with my parents from Travancore and set up this small tea shop and eatery" said Kannan a tea shop owner in Kempuholey. "When this bridge was being built they set up a camp which was called Kempuholey camp and I and my father had helped the engineers divert water falling from the top of the hills to help them to set the concrete slabs that was just few days before the monsoons" Kannan remembers. But he and his wife Kusuma go at least 500 meters down the hill to fetch water. Similar stories are told in Yettina holay , Shibaje, Surikumer, and Siribagilu.

A few regular 'waterfall tourists' from Bangalore who were resting by one of the spots were aghast to find there was no water in their favourite waterfall. Murali Kumar a hobby nature photographer told that "I have brought my friends from Bangalore all riding motorcycles to Shirady ghats promising them good time but the side of waterfalls, but here we found nothing but a stone wall".

A traveler from Mangalore to Sakleshpur said "I had been enjoying the waterfalls every time I passed this area for nearly two decades. But this time, to my disappointment, I could not see any waterfalls except for the small one near Manjarabad Fort. It was a sad sight to see just the huge dry rocks on which the waters once flowed to create a cascading effect on it."

A local who lives near the Manjarabad fort said that by this time last year, there was an abundant flow in water over the rocks, but this time somehow, the situation has changed without any reason that he knew.

Speaking about the pollution that happens in the waterfall nearby,he said that "I have witnessed several cases where people are seen throwing used plastic bottles and plastic wrappers of all kinds and sizes in and around the places where the water flows.

This makes it a very unpleasant sight for most nature lovers and visitors who come to see the natural wonders."