Ooty: Ill-informed messages circulated via ‘WhatsApp’ social network on the Moyar river, which originates in Nilgiris, entering Karnataka has triggered a controversy in the last couple of days, giving rise to an unwarranted clamour that the water flow to the upper riparian state should be stopped by constructing check dams in the hills.
However, green activists and the Nilgiris district administration have sought to quash this misinformation campaign, by clarifying that Moyar that flows down along the Nilgiris border and empties at Bhavanisagar reservoir in Erode district, is a Tamil Nadu state river and not an inter-state river to spark any controversy now.
S. Jayachandran, joint secretary of Tamil Nadu Green Movement, said that Moyar originates in Nilakottai and Gudalur regions in Nilgiris, runs through the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Thengumarahada in the foothill region and finally empties in the Bhavanisagar reservoir. It is a tributary of river Bhavani, he noted. “Moyar river flows down the slopes in the wooded zones along the Nilgiris border with Karnataka on the other side. It doesn’t enter the Karnataka side and re-enter Tamil Nadu as claimed by some WhatsApp messages” he noted.
Dr P. Sankar, collector of Nilgiris, while speaking to DC, asked when all these years the Moyar river has been a TN river, why there is sudden controversy over it?
“I also heard about the WhatsApp messages on Moyar river. This is absolutely unwarranted. It seems somebody is trying to confuse the society with some ulterior motive by triggering controversy. It is a well-known fact that Moyar river runs along the Nilgiris border on the north and Northeastern side of the hills. People should stop posting incorrect information in the social media,” he added.
