Foresters pocket 58L by issuing fake tickets

Coimbatore: District forest officer T K Ashok Kumar has suspended a forester and sought action against another officer for issuing fake entry tickets to the visitors to Kovai Kutrallam, an ecotourism spot located 35km from the city, and pocketing ₹58 lakh in the past one year.
He said he placed forester Rajesh Kumar, who was attached to Boluvampatti range, under suspension on Thursday for appropriating ₹35 lakh that was collected as entry fee to Kovai Kutrallam. “He confessed to the crime during a departmental inquiry. We have recovered ₹35 lakh from Rajesh and deposited in the eco-tourism committee account.”
Similarly, the officer said, former Boluvampatti range officer Saravanan was found to have swindled ₹23 lakh that was collected from the visitors to Kovai Kutrallam as entry fee. He was recently transferred to Rameswaram, which comes under the Madurai forest division. Coimbatore forest division officials have approached the conservator of forest in Madurai division to place him under suspension.
According to a forest department source, visitors to Kovai Kutrallam are stopped at Chinnar check post, where entry tickets are issued. From there, they are transported in the forest department vehicles. An entry fee of ₹60 is charged for adults and ₹30 for children. Parking tokens for two-wheelers and cars are issued separately.
“Rajesh and Saravanan used forged entry tickets, which resembled the original, and pocketed the money,” the source said. Kovai Kutrallam is a renowned tourist spot, which draws people from not only Coimbatore and surrounding places, but also from faraway places. Anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 people visit the waterfalls on a weekend day. During the festival times, the spot would be crowded. During Pongal holidays, around 4,000 people visited the waterfalls every day.