Hanagodu:Unscientific road humps on the road that connects Hunsur and Nagarahole National Park is causing nightmares to hundreds of commuters who travel on the road daily.

Shockingly, these humps are not marked in white paint as an indication to the motorists to slow-down.

It takes about one-and-a-half hours to cover 45 km road to Nagarahole National Park from Hunsur. Villagers and commuters told Star of Mysore that there are one or two humps per kilometre. Even if one takes a count of one hump per kilometre, it will be 45 road humps on the stretch.

“None of the road humps are painted white and motorists are at their wits’ end while travelling on the road as they do not know when the next hump approaches,” commuters said.

Seeing these unscientific  and unpainted humps, the local villagers had approached the Range Forest Officer (RFO) offering to paint the humps themselves. “We told the RFO that we will paint the humps and he refused and said that painting the humps was the responsibility of the Forest Department and the Department would paint all of them soon. It has been a year and none of the humps are painted,” villagers said. Where is the responsibility of the RFO ?

Since the road connects Mysuru to Kodagu and Kerala, there are many people who commute on the road. Old people, sick people and pregnant women find it tough to travel on the road, the villagers added.

Forest Officials, however, said that the humps have been laid to protect the animals. “This road passes through thick forests and motorists tend to speed, killing or scaring the wild animals. We want to prevent this,” they said and added that animals can be aggressive when they see speeding vehicles. Yes, motorists know this. But, should they lay road humps to break the backbone of the motorists? Cant’s they paint it in white to caution the motorist?

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Veeranahosahalli Range Forest Officer (RFO) Madhusudhan and Kallahalla RFO Shivaramu said that the responsibility of maintaining the road humps including their painting rests with PWD.  Then, why not allow villagers to paint the humps?