Ermayi falls near Belthangady-what is accessible now

Ermayi is a nice falls near Belthangady in the western ghats, under Kuduremukha forest buffer zone. Till last year (2020) Ermayi falls was open to public and there are a few videos of people visiting this. However of late the falls is closed to public- not because of Govt decision but the landlord through whose property the path to Ermayi falls lies is fed up of visitors and has decided not to allow anyone through.

Ermayi falls is also spelt as Ermai, Ermayee or Eramai.

As I planned to visit Didupe falls, I also decided to check Ermayee falls. I was told it is closed, but the explorer in me decided to go as close as possible and see what is latest and if there is anything we can visit/do. That visit was fairly successful as we could explore a river, a bridge and a mini falls.

We followed google maps to Ermayee falls. The last 1 km was bad roads. Venue could handle it, but low ground clearance vehicles might struggle.

We reached a spot where the road ends. It was river on one side and some space to turn/park. Decided to park here and explore on foot.

Spoke to a local, who confirmed that Ermayi falls is closed and we can't access. But then, having come this far we were not to return empty handed. So decided to explore around a bit.

As we went further, we could see a bridge made of bamboo. It was shaking heavily and didn't feel stable. We crossed it one by one. From the bridge we could see a pair of giant rocks on both sides and stream of water flowing in between and a mini falls ahead.

We crossed the other side, I could see the road leading to a private property with gates closed. Here we decided to get down into the river as the water was not even knee deep (December). Got down into the river, spent some time in the water, clicked a few pics, went closer to the mini falls. Check photos below.

We walked back along the stream to parking lot and returned. Overall though it is not possible to visit the main Ermayi falls, we could have some fun accessing mini falls, taking a walk on knee deep stream between huge boulders and walking across the bamboo bridge. Because we didn't travel all the way exclusively for this we didn't miss much. Will be better if Govt intervenes and provides some kind of access to original Ermayi falls.

Property owners are within their rights to deny entry to visitors. But we don't know what is Government's stand on this. If Govt makes up their mind they can carve out an alternate path to Ermayi falls or allow visitors to trek along the stream. Of course they also get to charge some 100-200 Rs entry fee like they are doing for other waterfalls across the state.