Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Jul 19: The Forest department is mulling of forming a separate trekking route for hikers of various hill stations of Western Ghats and plateau.

The route is being formed to prevent the hikers from losing track. The forest department wants to improve tourism and hence has planed the route along with environment tourism department.

Trekking routes are being finalized for Kollamogru of Subrahmanya, Veerakamba in Bantwal, two trekking routes in Karinjeshwara and one at Gadayikallu. Plant and animal wealth of these areas is exceptional and is also a nesting ground for many birds. Environmental tourism department will finalize the list and release as soon as possible. Earlier, district tourism department had made a similar attempt but it failed.

It is criminal offence to enter into forests of the Western Ghats as per law. One has to take permission and cooperation of forest department. A nominal fee is collected at the trekking base after obtaining all details of hikers. Guides will be deployed to lead the hikers. This will prevent the hikers from losing their track.

It is noted that only 50% of trekkers have knowledge of the hills where they come for trekking. Others just use Google map or articles written on newspapers or blog. 90% of such trekkers lose track and get lost in the forest. Losing track in the Western Ghats can be fatal. It is not easily to trace them also. One or two incidents of this nature report every years. So in order to avoid these incidents, the forest department along with environment tourism department has come up with this idea.