K’ t aka pupils climb hill tops for internet

With the unexpected advent of online classes for students post the Covid pandemic, some from Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada villages could not easily connect to the virtual lessons, forcing them to climb small hills to catch the signal.

Students from Perla, Bandihole, Hosathota, Boodudamakki, Shibaje, Belthangady and others in the coastal district are climbing hills for internet connection.

Located in South Canara area, bound by the Arabian Sea in the west and Western

Ghats in the east, Uduipi district in the north and Kerala state in the south, Dakshina Kannada is an education hub. In fact, falling under Mangaluru forest circle, Belthangady is one of the 9 ranges of Kudremukh wildlife division, subdivided into Kudremukh and Siddapura wildlife subdivisions.

Likewise, forests in the Kudremukh National Park are primarily evergreen to semievergreen, at an altitude of above 1,000 m with extensive and rolling grasslands, surrounding pockets of Shola forest in valleys and depressions. With such a geography and terrain, mobile signal is not always strong and uniform in these villages.

Some students in the district’s peripheral villages bordering the Western Ghats are facing mobile internet connection issues compelling them to scale the peaks. Despite the signal issue at a time when the life depends on the virtual world for transactions, district authorities did not receive any complaint.