On Republic Day, 954 trekkers who had tickets and over a thousand more who had shown up with the hope of getting tickets had gathered near the entry point of Kumara Parvatha. The fourth highest peak in Karnataka, at a height of 1,700 metres, it is situated in the ecologically fragile Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, whose entry point is in the Dakshina Kannada district in the Western Ghats. Videos of the overcrowding went viral; so did complaints of plastic bags, bottles, and leftover food that littered the forest.
The alarming number of people raised concerns about the threat posed by unregulated trekking across the State. With environmentalists raising concerns, the Environment Minister of Karnataka, Eshwar Khandre, imposed a temporary ban on trekking in Kumara Parvatha and other trekking paths in the State. He said they would be opened only after a standard operating procedure (SOP) is put in place.
Kumara Parvatha is managed by the Madikeri division of the Forest Department, with other trails like Kuduremukh being managed by their respective divisions. However the bulk of the trails — 23 trekking spots — fall under the Karnataka Ecotourism Development Board (KEDB), a wing of the Forest Department. As many as 1,13,243 people visited these between April and December 2023, bringing in a revenue of ₹3.73 crore. This is a significant increase from the entire previous financial year of April 2022 to March 2023, when there were 96,796 visitors (₹2.88 crore revenue). In 2021-22, when COVID-19 regulations were in place, 61,023 trekkers scaled the hills (₹1.45 crore).
