Landslide disrupts tourist inflow to famous Kakolat waterfall in Nawda

Speed Post News Network

Nawada: Torrential rains since Sunday night triggered a landslide disrupting inflow of hundreds of seasonal tourists to Kakolat’s natural waterfall under Govindpur police station of Rajauli sub-division in Nawada district, the one and only tourist destination of the district. Rocks and boulders came crashing down below blocking the rocky stairway leading to the waterfall.
The legendary waterfall falls below from a height of around 150 feet and which has its origin from the overhead hills and dense forest cover and attracts over 10 lakh tourists every year from all over the state has now become inaccessible, much to the disappointment of the tourists and locals. Instead of attending to the calamity and taking up repair work on war footing, callous official authorities attribute it to ‘divine’ retribution!

Legend has it that in the Treta Yug, a king was transformed into a python due to a curse by a sage and only redeemed when the Pandava brothers visited the site. Located 33 km from the district headquarters, the waterfall, till two decades ago, was also a death trap as dozens of unsuspecting tourists got sucked in the 25 feet deep pond at the base of the waterfall. However, tragic occurrences came to an end after a former Nawada DM SK Satpathi in 1995-96 got constructed a concrete 2 feet thick slab some 20 feet above the bed of the pond.

Jamuna Paswan, the local caretaker and an expert diver who is credited with saving several precious lives from drowning in the past, informed that the waterfall despite its vast tourist potential has ever been a victim of the apathetic attitude of the state tourism department with no worthwhile infrastructure having come up around the waterfall. A guest house, which was constructed a decade ago, has turned into a “bhoot bangla” as it is devoid of even the basic amenities forcing tourists to come with gas cylinders, stove, crockery and raw materials for cooking their own food lest they starve. Petty local vendors, who depend for their livelihood purely on the inflow of tourists between April and October months, are the worst affected.