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Kaanum Pongal incident-free, thanks to cops’ safety measures
Security measures by police in Chennai ensured that Kaanum Pongal celebrations on Tuesday passed off peacefully without any casualty and incidents of children missing.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
At Pulicat lake, located in neighbouring Thiruvallur district, an 18-year-old youth identified as S Saravanan drowned after he tried swimming with friends despite police had warned visitors against bathing and boating in the water body. Nearly one lakh people gathered in Marina beach and Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar and no single drowning case was reported, since nearly 10,000 police personnel in uniform and plain clothes monitored the entire stretch.
Police officials DTNext spoke to said that tying tags on children with their parents’ name and phone numbers helped them in big way as nearly 50 children who got separated in the crowd were reunited with their parents within minutes. While five watch towers had been erected for surveillance of the crowd, nine all-terrain vehicles, a mounted force team with 10 horses roamed the entire beach on Marina to be available to visitors in case of emergency. Three drones, including a quadcopter were kept for monitoring the crowd.
“Drones were used as public address system and also source of light in the dark areas in the beach on Tuesday late evening,” noted C Sarangan, additional commissioner of police, south. As many as 150 fishermen and a rescue team with boat were kept ready in case of unexpected drowning incidents. An official said that the beaches were not as crowded as it was expected to be this year.
Footfall plunges by 33percent in Vandalur zoo
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur, which was opened for public to celebrate Kaanum Pongal on Tuesday, hosted only around 40,000 people, nearly half of footfalls recorded in 2016.
The zoo, which was closed for Kaanum Pongal in 2017 owing to ravage caused by Cyclone Vardah, was visited by 60,000 people in 2016 and 65,000 in 2015 on the same occasion, a day when families usually go on outings.
While officials expected around one lakh visitors on Tuesday, various factors are attributed to the low turn-out. Restrictions on carrying food and plastic, absence of hired cycles and battery-operated vehicles, closure of lion and deer safaris and additional charges for carrying cameras and mobile phones might have affected the patronage.
Visitors jump barricades to swim in Mamallapuram sea
To prevent people drowning in sea in Mamallapuram, police had erected barricades on either side of the shore temple. However, the crowd defied the severe security to cross over the barricades to swim in the sea. As precautionary step, Mamallapuram police kept 60 fishermen ready to rescue if somebody drown, but no such incident was reported till evening.
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