DINDIGUL: The Kodaikanal municipality removed over six tonnes of liquor bottles from Kodaikanal lake over the past two months. A top official said the removal is being carried out by a team of 50 persons, and they will continue to remove bottles manually over the next three months.
The artificial lake, with a depth of three metres, was created in 1863 and is a prime tourist attraction.
Speaking to TNIE, Meenakshi Sundaram, a farmer, said, “The lake is spread across 76 acres and is surrounded by bushes. A 5-km road runs along the lake, providing an opportunity for tipplers to throw the empty bottles into the lake, especially at night.”
Former Kodaikanal Municipality Chairman Mohammed Ibrahim said, “The waterbody was created during the British rule for their personal use. After independence, the ownership of the lake was given to the fisheries department between 1950 and 2009. Later, the ownership was transferred to Kodaikanal municipality. Sadly, tipplers have destroyed the ecosystem by throwing bottles and plastic into it.”
Speaking to TNIE, Kodaikanal City Corporation Commissioner P Sathiyanathan said, “This is a serious problem faced by the municipality. Tipplers and tourists are the primary culprits. After consuming liquor, they throw these bottles into the lake. We deployed 50 persons to manually remove the bottles. So far, six tonnes of liquor bottles have been removed from the lake over the past two months. We believe another five to six tonnes of bottles remain in the lake.”