Kochi, March 31: Kerala's popular Varkala is gradually acquiring the image of a killer beach where unsuspecting tourists fall to their death from unprotected, high, red cliffs that loom over the silver sands and the blue sea, evoking protests and demands for safeguards from foreign tourists.On March 17, a Canadian, Kyle Warren Dale, 23, hurtled 80 feet down to his death from the North Cliff at Papanasamkunnu, at 8.45 pm, while returning to the guest house after dinner.He is the second tourist to die in two years. On February 27 last year, an American, Philips Rawson Field, 30, had slipped to his death from the cliff heights.
A German, Claudia Miranda, was more fortunate and escaped with serious injuries when she fell down the same cliff on October 28, 1996. She was saved because she was rushed to hospital in time.
``There are accidents every year,'' says Sarra Whicheloe from the United Kingdom, who was with Kyle on his last journey, ``yet there are no medical facilities for emergencies or safeguards toprevent accidents.''
Kyle was a marine seaman from West Vancouver. He had come to Papanasam on February 27. He and Sarra were walking back to the guest house after dinner when death beckoned Kyle, says Sarra.
It was dark. Sarra was walking in front. She heard a noise and turned back to see Kyle plunging to his death.
Though she screamed, summoning people to the accident site, Kyle, who had suffered serious head injuries, could not be saved.
Says Sarra: ``What impedes rescue of tourists is the absence of any medical facilities at Varkala itself to give immediate help to accident victims. There was not even a stretcher at the beach. Kyle was strapped to a cane chair which only worsened his internal injuries.''
Kyle was taken to the Sivagiri Mission Hospital and from there to the Medical College Hospital at Thiruvananthapuram, but he died on the way. The tourists who frequent Varkala, which is climbing the popularity graph as a destination as yet unpolluted, with unique scenic seductions like thelooming red cliffs, the mineral springs that trickle down and the clean silvery sands, are suddenly confronting the possibility of death on the dark unprotected cliffs.
This can certainly become a deterrent to the promotion of tourism there. Sarra has submitted a memorandum to the Director of Tourism, with copies to the municipal chairman of Varkala and the Minister for Tourism, to take urgent action to ensure the safety of tourists on the cliff. The memorandum has demanded that the high street on the cliff be widened, well-lit and be protected with a barrier on the edge, which does not mar the natural beauty of the landscape.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
