Tourist driving illegally on Mandarmani beach killed

Mandarmoni: Lax safety measures along the Mandarmoni beach and wilful flouting of coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms by hotels and visitors led to an accident in which a tourist was killed when his car overturned after skidding on the uneven beach, where driving is prohibited.
Victim Siddharta Ray Choudhury (36) died on Friday, while his wife, two children and a relative were injured.
The death comes less than a year after a 35-year-old tourist from Kolkata died when his parachute tied to a jeep speeding along the beach hit a lamp post on June 21, 2015. Since then, the dangerously improvised form of "para-sailing", in which a tourist would glide on a parachute as a jeep, to which s/he would be tied to, sped along, has been banned at Mandarmoni.
East Midnapore SP Alok Rajoria said, "Since the death of a tourist on Friday, we have stepped up surveillance on Mandarmoni beach."
Ray Choudhury and his family of seven from Khardah, North 24-Parganas, reached Mandarmoni on May 18. Despite the rain since morning in the wake of cyclone Roanu, Ray Choudhury and his family decided to go for a drive on Friday. Around 2.30pm, Ray Choudhury was trying to reverse his XUV-his wife Piu, two kids and relative Ratna Bhattacharya were seated inside-in front of the hotel. Applying the back gear, as he reversed to turn the vehicle around, it skidded in the slush and overturned.
Hotel employees rushed out and rescued the five trapped inside. They were taken to Contai hospital where Ray Choudhury died of head injuries. While Bhattacharya had to be hospitalized, Piu and the kids were discharged after being administered first aid.
CRZ norms prohibit driving on the beach but the rule, though displayed on government billboards in Mandarmoni, is flouted with impunity by tourists who put up in hotels that have mushroomed-again, illegally-along the beach. Parking areas on the premises of these hotels are on the beach itself. Ray Choudhury had also parked his XUV at the beach parking lot of the hotel they were staying in. Rampant driving on the beach has turned out to be not only dangerous but also wreaked havoc on the once-high population of red crabs on the coastal stretch.