Death of Dondole falls

posted in: Uncategorized | 7
16 December 2007
We ruled out climbing Amedikallu and decided to go to Dondole falls, near Ujire. Here is a file photo of the falls found in web long ago.

Route from Ujire:
From Ujire, take the road towards Kottigehara. 10 kms from Ujire is Kakkinje. Take a right turn there to reach a village Anniyoor that is 6 kms from Kakkinje. At Anniyoor, go left and you will find a huge Church. Take the mud road that goes to left and travel for 4 kms to reach an estate. Falls is 2kms from estate.

We followed this direction and as we entered the estate, things were disturbing. What I thought would be a forest looked like a huge mine field. There were Lorries, worker sheds, and iron sheets, everything except greenery.

I enquired a guy playing badminton about the falls. First, he refused to acknowledge about the existence of the falls. I knew he was bluffing and upon further enquiry, he told that a dam is being constructed for mini hydro project just above the falls. He said there is no use of going to the falls. But anyway, we had come so far and also I wanted to know the state of the falls.
We then got down and started moving. The road was constructed to the dam and for that they had blasted a hill. The debris had almost covered the falls. It was a sad scene to watch. Irreparable damage has been done to the falls. The huge pipes, power generating plant, roads, worker sheds have all destroyed the forests.

I could not get much detail about the dam or the company building it nor about the permissions obtained for destruction.

But whatever it is, the chances of recovery are very remote and it is safe to say that Dondole falls is history. After destroying Western Ghats for roads, mines and huge power plants, Government has come up with a new idea to continue the destruction of the forests, the mini hydro electricity projects. Soon, other falls like Bandaje, Koosalli, Irpu and Kudlu Theertha will follow the suit.

7 Responses

  1. ರಾಜೇಶ್ ನಾಯ್ಕ

    Arvind,

    What a sad story. I did not beleive it when I saw the title of your article. but photos can not lie. Man, what a disaster. dondole falls is about 40 ft height and 60ft width. One expert swimmer in Mangalore YHAI tried to reach the base of the falls below the surface. Despite going down for about 20-25ft under water he could not find the base. this is one speciality of this falls. the road has reduced the falls to nothing. I am feeling terribly sick and disgusted after reading this post.

  2. VENU VINOD

    yes,
    this is painful story, amdist the thick forest, many such ‘developments’ are taking place and God only knows about our future

  3. Aravind GJ

    Rajesh, Venu, Sindhu

    I was very shocked when i went there. The destruction of the falls was the last thing that i expected.

    I don’t know when these depredation on nature would end.

  4. PATIL

    This is very very shocking… We had planned to go there on Dec 23, but due to lack of proper knowledge of the route we dropped the plan and went elsewhere. But my heart still yearned for this lovely falls.. Too late now… Hope the destructors spare other lovely falls and green wonders in the Western Ghats…

  5. Sachi

    Its really painful…I had been to the falls ardn march 2005…cant forget it…feeling shocked and sad…will miss it dearly :((

  6. Parisarapremi

    ಛೆ!! ಏನಾದ್ರೂ ಮಾಡಿ ಉಳಿಸ್ಕೋಬೇಕು ರೀ ನಮ್ಮ ಮಿಕ್ಕ ಜಲಪಾತಗಳನ್ನು.. 🙁

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