DHARMAPURI: Residents of Dharmapuri have raised concerns after a video spread online featuring a sanitary worker at Koothapadi Panchayat dumping waste clothes into the Cauvery River.
Hogenakkal is not only a prominent tourism spot but also a holy site where rituals are performed to honour one's ancestors and deceased kin. As a result, the region draws huge crowds on important days of the Hindu festival calendar.
According to district officials, Hogenakkal attracts hundreds of pilgrims every day. The number could be over 5,000 on new moon days or other major festivals like Aadi Perukku.
However, after the rituals, people often discard their old clothes either in the river or on the banks of the river. Over the years, the Dharmapuri administration has developed no solution to stop the practice, according to residents.
Amid this backdrop, on Monday, a video of a sanitary worker dumping waste into the Cauvery has irked the locals.
Speaking to the TNIE, S George from Hogenakkal said, "Koothapadi panchayat has poor sanitation. Tourists arriving here dump large amounts of plastic waste into the river. Furthermore, under the guise of religious ceremonies, people coming here dump their old clothes into the river. Every year several tonnes of clothes are fished out of the Cauvery waters. In the long run, this practice will destroy Hogenakkal and the Cauvery."
P Mariappan from Pennagaram said, "The most alarming situation is that there has been no attempt to resolve this practice. There is no enforcement to stop the people from dumping waste into the Cauvery at Hogenakkal. Neither the panchayat, BDO, revenue department nor police try to stop this rampant dumping of clothes in the Cauvery. For many years now, we have requested Hogenakkal and the forest area around the Cauvery to be marked as a plastic-free zone, but to no avail."
C Prabhu from Hogenakkal said, "The panchayat had set up cloth collection points, but tourists and devotees coming here ignored the setup. We need to enhance enforcement by imposing fines on people dumping clothes in the Cauvery. The problem is once these clothes are dumped into the river, they are hard to recover, as the inflow poses a significant danger."
When TNIE reached out to officials in the Block Development Office in Pennagaram, they said, "There is little we can do about this. It is not only the government's duty to keep rivers safe, but people also should be responsible. It was only a month ago that we cleaned the Cauvery beds, clearing tonnes of waste clothes from the river. Now, with inflows increasing, we cannot risk people cleaning the river again. Regarding the video, we will look into the matter."