Canary Hill rest house. Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar

Hazaribagh, March 6: Once a favourite destination of tourists, Canary Hill located close to Hazaribagh town hardly gets any visitors these days, thanks to the criminals who have dropped anchor in the area.

The placid ambience of the hill has been disturbed by frequent incidents of eve-teasing and snatching and the tourist inflow gradually began to thin.

But last November’s incident in which some unidentified youths cut off one of the hands of a schoolboy and escaped with the detached limb was the final nail in the coffin. People stopped going there.

Interestingly, the hill is situated only 1km from the official residence of the district police chief.

According to sources, the forest department had pumped in several lakhs to develop this place in 1999. A pond situated near the hill was beautified and paddle boating introduced. Culverts, stairs and gabions were constructed, around 500 cemented flower pots were purchased and eight sitting garden umbrellas were erected to deck up the spot.

Officials at the forest department said that the money was used properly and after the beautification work was over, visitors started pouring in the initial days.

Records show that earlier this place was popular among visitors coming from Bihar, Orissa and Bengal, the officials added. “We still receive bookings at the rest house from some tourists from these places. But slowly the footfall dropped due to lack of adequate security,” said an official of the forest department.

Soon the hill was overtaken by criminals. Now bushes cover the pond while the gabions and flower pots are missing. A cafeteria has been closed down too.

Officials at the department blamed the administration for failing to provide adequate security cover to the tourist destination.

However, deputy superintendent of police Naushad Alam claimed: “Regular patrolling in the area has minimised crime at Canary Hill. The vigil will be further strengthened after a new system of patrolling comes into effect. The entire town will be divided into different sectors and a police team will patrol each area.”