Bengaluru: Restrictions on trekking at Nandi Hills?

Bengaluru: After a series of young trekkers in Nilgiris and the Western ghats in Tamil Nadu Kerala, and Karnataka being in distress including the case of Nishanth Gollu at Nandi Hills on Sunday, the Nandigiri Police station near the Nandi hills has recommended more restrictions imposed on trekking at Nandi Hills. Superintendent of Police Chikkaballapura district GK Mithun Kumar indicated that soon the department will make a decision and will recommend it to the government. These youngsters take their sense of adventure to the extreme and do not take any safety gear along with them and they do not even inform the local authorities. In the case of Nishanth, he was on a solo trekking expedition which was not just irresponsible but also dangerous SP said.

The missing trekkers and mishaps during trekking expeditions have become more frequent. Just a week back a youth who went on trekking had been marooned on a cleft in a mountain in Kerala who was later rescued by the army men. In Nishanth's case, a helicopter was pressed into service. In more than one case in the Western ghats of Karnataka young trekkers go into the deep forests on a tiger trail. In 2019 an entire team of trekkers had lost way and spent two days in deep forests without any safety equipment or backup.

The forest department officials in Mysuru, Bengaluru and Mangaluru say that they are flooded with requests from the young groups of trekkers into the Western ghats but unless they have professional trekking help and equipment the department was not given permission to explore. Some of them however sneak into the forests without permission with an innocent objective of trekking and exploring the wild side.

But that is not advisable the officials say. In Kudremukh, Mookambika, Bhimgadh, BR Hills MM Hills and Nagaraholay national parks the vigil had been on the high in recent years. The forest department will give a time slot for every vehicle passing through the national parks to enter and exit. No private vehicles are allowed to stop on the road passing through the national park unless it was due to a breakdown.