In Muttathi, booze and feasting the last thing we want!

Chamarajanagar: No one will even say environment hazard, but come weekends and the serene banks of  the Cauvery river in Mandya  are taken over by a sea of devotees sacrificing animals and feasting on them for upto about a kilometre from the Hanuman temple in Muttathi, Halagur.

With the temple  located in the midst of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, the animal sacrifices carried out by its devotees, is causing  forest officers serious concern as all the activity is disturbing  wildlife and polluting the river.

Taking a cue from the Biligirirangana Hills, a tiger reserve in Chamrajanagar, where animal sacrifice was banned a couple of years ago, environmentalists are now demanding a similar ban in Muttathi to come to the sanctuary's rescue.

 "If the animal sacrifice is banned, then the drinking and noise on the river banks will automatically dip and the area will be free from such a nuisance, "says Deputy Conservator of Forests of the sanctuary, Ramesh Kumar.

Going by the officers, the animal sacrifices encourage tribals in the area to rear livestock, which in turn take to grazing in the forests and women sneak in liquor bottles to go with the feasts by hiding them in their saris and selling them to devotees for double the price charged by the stores.

“The devotees also indiscriminately cut dry tree branches in the forests for cooking," rues Mr Kumar. Pointing out that some 240 people, mainly youth have drowned in the river since 1990, he believes that many of them have lost their lives due to the drinking and feasting that follow the animal sacrifices.

Assistant Commissioner Arul Kumar told Deccan Chronicle that the concerns of the forest officials would be brought to the notice of  Mandya Deputy Commissioner, Ziya Ullah  and steps taken  to ban animal sacrifice in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.