Tiger Hill, Sandakphu among major tourist hotspots to close doors on visitors

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 16 March 2020| Darjeeling: While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has talked of social distancing as a way to check the advances of the dreaded Coronavirus, tourists continue to pour into the Darjeeling Hills.

All wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks in the Darjeeling Hills will remain out of bounds to tourists from Tuesday, owing to the threat of Coronavirus.

The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park (PNHZP) will remain closed to visitors from Tuesday till March 31. HMI courses will be rescheduled.

Meanwhile, homestays in Mongpu have decided to bar tourists from March 17 to 31. This was decided in a meeting of the Mongpu Tourism Welfare Society.

The government of Sikkim on Tuesday will notify a complete ban on the entry of domestic tourists to Sikkim till April 15. Earlier, the Himalayan state had banned the entry of foreign tourists only.

"The Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary and the Singhalila National Park will remain closed for tourists from Tuesday as a precautionary measure," stated Jiju Jaesper J, DFO, Wildlife, Darjeeling.

Incidentally, major tourist attraction and sunrise viewing point Tiger Hill is located in the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary, while the world famous trek route to Sandakphu lies in the Singhalila National Park. Both these points will remain out of bounds for tourists until further notice.

"We have decided to shut down the HMI and zoo for visitors till March 31 as a precautionary measure. Till now we were taking all precautionary measures including provision of sanitisers and hand wash. We are getting more than 3,000 tourists every day. Social distancing is the need of the hour. We are rescheduling our courses. The trainees will get opportunity to choose rescheduled courses from May 2020 till March 2021," stated Group Captain Jai Kishan, Principal, HMI. The zoo and HMI are housed in the same compound in Darjeeling.

Prem Singh Tamang, the Chief Minister of Sikkim, chaired a high-level meeting on Monday. Along with shutting doors to tourists from Tuesday, all movie halls, casinos, discos, pubs, gyms, hotels, fairs (melas) and festivals will remain closed till April 15 as well.

With the state government's decision to close down educational institutes in Bengal till April 15, there was a spate of boarding students leaving town to return home. However, majority of the boarders from Bangladesh and Thailand stayed back in the schools.

Most boarding schools decided that the choice of staying back or going home would be left up to the parents and guardians. Meanwhile, the boarders who are unable to go home would remain in school.