kerala, with its enchanting backwaters, forests, coastal regions, magnificient culture, is always a huge destination for people who are looking for a 'life' away from their normal routines.

one of the good things of kerala, is that, local people also travel widely within kerala to see nature spots and you cannot miss school children who can found in all tourist spots soaking up the atmosphere.

but the innocent school kids of ernakulam would have hardly imagined their fate would have been sealed when they were on excursion in a boat in periyar river near Thattekadu Bird Sanctuary.

there are many reasons for the tragedy. lax policing of boat operators, huge number of passengers on the boat sometimes 3 to 5 times the limit, no proper training for boat operators, etc stand in the forefront.

in that list, also stands the huge sand mining in periyar river that has left the river very deep in many places thereby unfit for boating. not only the river gets killed by massive sand mining, it is also extremely unsafe going in boats to those sudden huge deep pits where sand has been mined.

if atleast now, the kerala govt, wakes up to the hazard of illegal, unsustainable massive sand mining, future tragedies like this can be avoided.

hindu hits the nail when it says,
Without enforcing safety norms at all levels, tourism initiatives would prove counterproductive in the long run.

and in that safety norm also involves preservation of environment, because in a tourism country like kerala, eco preservation goes hand in hand with increased tourism and also increased safety.