Indiscriminate sand mining in the riverbed of the Periyar led to the tragedy on Friday in which four Malayattoor pilgrims got drowned while they were taking bath near the Sri Sankara Bridge at Kalady, localites have said.
The disaster reportedly happened when Joseph, 15, the youngest of the four, lost his sandal in the river and Suresh went to retrieve it.
But he had no idea about the river depth there. Seeing Suresh sinking, the other three (Rajesh, Antony and Joseph) jumped in to save him and all four got drowned.
Sebastian Palissery, board member of Kalady-Kanjoor Rural Cooperative Bank, said that one of the important reasons for the incident is the formation of deep pits in the river due to sand mining and the resultant change in the current patterns, especially at the ghats where people take bath.
“The craters are manmade. The sand miners have not even spared the bridge. The foundations of the pillars at many places are now exposed, and it won’t be too long before the bridge falls,” Sebastian said.
“The authorities are not bothered to protect the river from the hands of sand mafia working in full swing during night despite Pollution Control Board strictures and High Court orders,” he alleged.
The district administration had closed down 15 sand mining ghats in the Periyar on the basis of a High Court order. Okkal, Koovapadi, Kanjoor, Kalady and Malayattoor Neeleshwaram panchayat were among these areas. The High Court had also said that mining should be totally banned within 1,000 metres of a bridge. Still, in spite of all this, sand mining is being carried out relentlessly,” he alleged.Binu Purushotham, a BJP activist, said that sand mining in this particular area during the last couple of years has gone beyond all imaginable extent.He alleged that sand miners come in large ‘kettuvalloms’ and mine using 29-30 ft poles.
According to Kareem Meeran, a former member of Kalady panchayat, the site where the four youths got drowned is yet to be measured by the authorities.