Mysuru: The Department of Tourism and KSTDC, conducting a cycle jatha for nearly 40 km on theme “Save wildlife”, is drawing a lot of flak for wrong timing.The newly trained Pravasi Mitra participants also called tourist friendly police and the ambassadors of state tourism who disseminate information, provide security to tourists in prominent tourist spots, took out the cycle jatha from Mysuru to Srirangapatna via KRS and back. Apart from nearly 20 trin trin cycles, most of the cycles which were part of jatha were not fit for cycle jatha.

Going by the reality, it seems the authorities belonging to department of tourism and KSTDC conducted the event just for namesake. The time which they had planned for jatha was not at all right time for it. The jatha was flagged off between 1.30 pm and 1.45 pm. The participants numbering nearly 50 from five different districts including Chikkamagaluru, Ramanagaram and Chamarajanagar took out a jatha from Mayura Hoysala on JLB Road to Srirangapatna and back which is nearly 40 km. The newly trained Pravasi Mitra, fearing the consequences without uttering any word took out the cycle jatha.

Tourism department has trained 50 home guards into Pravasi Mitras. H P Janardana mentioned that this year tourism department declared the year as ‘Wildlife year” and hence to promote this, this jatha was arranged along with KSTDC. When asked about unfit cycles being used for nearly 40 km jatha, he had no answer.