MADIKERI: A tourist trying to take a selfie on a bridge is suspected to have drowned in the Harangi reservoir in Kodagu. Search operations were ongoing till late in the evening on Thursday to trace him.
Police said a group of four people -- Sandeep, Govindaraju, Ramkumar and Ranjith -- had visited Kodagu from Bengaluru. On Thursday evening, the four stopped on the Harangi bridge to click photographs. Sandeep (46), a tattoo artist by profession, got down from the vehicle and tried clicking a selfie standing from the edge of the bridge. He slipped from the bridge and is suspected to have drowned.
The fire department reached the spot immediately to conduct a search operation for the missing Sandeep even as the water outflow from the reservoir was stopped.
“The outflow from the dam was low and the victim is suspected to have slipped from the bridge while trying to click a selfie. Raft teams from Dubare are involved in the search operation,” confirmed Gangadharappa RV, the DySP of Somwarpet Sub Division.
Sources confirmed that the bridge gets flooded only when the outflow from the Harangi reservoir is over 15,000 cusecs. The outflow from the dam during the incident was less than 2,000 cusecs. The spot was visited by Madikeri MLA Dr Mantar Gowda.