No fence will work at World’s End: DWC
The wildlife Department says it will not put up fences on the World’s End mountain edge where German tourist Julia Elga fell to her death on November 11 but says it needs more staff to deploy at dangerous tourist sites.
Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Assistant Director in the Central Province, D.M. Weerasinghe acknowledged the current signboards at World’s End are old and unclear and the department wants to put up new signboards with instructions in Sinhala, Tamil and English, but added, “All this work will take at least one month”.
There is a dearth of staff in provincial wildlife departments and a request has been made to the ministry to employ more officers, Mr. Weerasinghe said.
“The guides accompanying the tourists also have a responsibility to protect them. Most of them sit idle at our office,” Mr. Weerasinghe said.
Mr. Weerasinghe said the department has no intention of putting up fences at World’s End as he believes people will lean over them and this could result on more fatalities.
“We want to make the tourists aware of being cautious in such places especially during the rainy season when the soil is loosened and has a higher tendency to break away on the edges,” he said.
Official records show almost half a million people visited World’s End in 2017, bringing the Horton Plains National Park Rs. 400 million in income – the third highest revenue received by a national park after Yala and Udawalawa.
“I don’t advise my clients to visit risky destinations like World’s End, especially during the rainy season,” T.K.R. Chandana, a private tour guide said.
Mr. Chandana, who runs a tour company called Sri Lankan Trip Advisor, pointed out that although millions of rupees are taken from tourists who visit World’s End the authorities had failed to provide them with safety.
“There is no fence to protect the tourists from falls,” he said. “It’s not necessary that you lean over the cliff to fall over it by accident. During the rainy season people can even slip off the edge while walking on the narrow track.”
Mr. Chandana said all other risky activities such as whitewater-rafting required tourists to sign a letter of acceptance of the risk they are undertaking, and added, “This place has nothing of that sort”.