Even after the recent incidents of drowning, safety measures on the beaches in the district remain weak. Only 10 lifeguards are available for about 30 km of the coastline between Beypore and Kappad beaches.
The ten guards are not even sufficient to meet the safety requirements of the Kozhikode main beach, which is now witnessing a steady increase in the number of visitors. The number of student visitors is also increasing forcing the Tourism Department to come up with a better safety management plan.
“Since the closure of schools for summer vacation, the beach destinations in the district have been witnessing a huge increase in the number of daily visitors. Authorities should at least consider some temporary arrangement till the end of May in view of students’ safety,” said Mahitha Binoj, office-bearer of a local travel collective. She also said there were several incidents on the Kozhikode beach where students had a narrow escape from drowning.
As of now, the Kozhikode beach has only four lifeguards and that too in different shifts. Their service is hardly available during the late evening hours. No alternative arrangement has been made to attend to emergency cases in their absence. Though a police outpost is there on the beach, it does not have any member equipped with proper training to offer life-saving support.
On the Bhatt Road beach, only two security guards are available and their responsibility is to protect the tourism amenities.
They are ill-equipped to fight any unexpected accidents on the seashore. Safety issues on several small stretches between the Kozhikode South beach and Puthiyappa have also been ignored.
Arun Thomas, a teacher from CKG Higher Secondary school, Chingavanam, said Muhsin Musthafa, a teenager from his school drowned while bathing near an unguarded stretch of the Thikkodi beach on Thursday. “His body was found out only on Friday morning. Such incidents, mainly because of the shortage of rescue guards, should not happen again in Kozhikode district,” he said.
Mr. Thomas also pointed out that the emerging beach destinations in Kozhikode district were hardly under the surveillance of any rescue teams. “The Thikkodi beach is slowly emerging as a drive-in beach and there are a lot of amateur young riders who frequent the location. There should be proper safety arrangement for all such locations,” he pointed out.