Selfie-taking tourists are straying from the wooden walkways in Croatia's Plitvice Lakes National Park causing damage to the sixteen stunning waterfalls and extensive forests. The oldest national park in Croatia is also one of its most visited, with up to 15,000 people in the park a day in peak season. One of the country's eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Plitvice lakes could lose its UNESCO status, because of the damage caused by overcrowding and construction of vacation homes nearby. “Visitors are no longer satisfied with sticking to the trails but are roaming beyond them to get away from the crowds and get nice photos,” Katarina Poljak, guardian of nature at the park, told Croatian media.
According to the Telegraph, this photo obsession has even proved fatal for some visitors. Last year, a Slovakian tourist reportedly died after falling while taking a photo of the lakes. And this year, a Canadian man narrowly survived a 250-foot fall while trying to, you guessed it, take a selfie. Other parks around the world have been facing similar problems: in June, one man died after venturing 225 yards off a path in Yellowstone National Park and falling into a hot spring. While there's no word yet on whether or not Plitvice Lakes National Park will start limiting tourists, as Italy's Cinque Terre has done, the park does plan to enact a new flip-flop ban to prevent further falls.