In Coorg, Littering Tourists Are Being Asked To Drive Back To Pick Up The Trash — They've Had Enough

Hill stations are getting flooded with tourists during the holiday season and weekends. Many videos of tourists flinging garbage in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand have made the rounds on social media.

Kodagu, better known as Coorg, the Scotland of India, has beautiful hills and jungles and naturally, this draws in thousands of tourists from all over the country and the world.

However, due to excessive tourism, the region is prone to being littered with unruly and irresponsible tourists. Kodavas have had it. Madetira Thimmaiah, General Secretary of the Kodagu Tourism Association says that the organisation with the support of the locals are keeping a close watch on the tourist spots.

Thimmaiah spotted a couple of youngsters throwing pizza boxes on the street. He found their phone numbers written on the pizza boxes and contacted the tourists. The tourists did apologise but refused to return to pick up the boxes since they were almost 80 kilometres away.

But he did not give up. With the help of the local police, he took to social media and shared the number online. The tourist was flooded with phone calls as netizens were outraged. Bengaluru Central Member of Parliament P C Mohan also lauded Thimmaiah's efforts and shared the video of this incident online.

Ultimately, the offender gave up and returned to Madikeri to pick up their trash.

Such incidents are on the rise, as Coorg is becoming a popular weekend getaway for the residents in Bengaluru and neighbouring states like Kerala. Even forests are no longer safe as truck loads of garbage from Kerala are being dumped in Makutta Reserve Forest and Bramhagiri Wildlife Forest.

Patrolling has increased since reports of trucks dumping garbage are coming in. Since then, several offenders have been booked by the local authorities and action has been initiated against them.

Recently, on June 17, former BJP MLA Appachhu Ranjan made a bunch of tourists turn their car around when someone spotted them flinging garbage from their car windows. They were made to apologise and clean up their mess. Such initiatives are being lauded on the internet and are setting an example for repeat offenders.