Only 50 tourists will be allowed to bathe at Mussoorie’s famous Kempty falls with a maximum permissible time of 30 minutes.
Iva Ashish Shrivastava, District Magistrate, said that the district administration had taken the decision in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that there would be a time limit set for thirty minutes for each bather and also mentioned that an air horn would be used as a signal for the exit time.
This news came after a viral video showed a large number of tourists bathing in the fall without wearing masks or maintaining the social distancing norms.
In places like the Kuldi Bazar and Mal Road which have often been crowded showed people not following the COVID-19 imposed restrictions nor wearing masks. A similar pattern was seen in Nainital where due to an increase in the number of tourists, the distancing norms were unable to be followed.
The Union Health Ministry said this week that they raised concern over reports of people flocking to the hill stations and various tourist destinations in large numbers. It had been referred to as revenge travel by Lav Agarwal, the secretary (MoHFW).
The popular hill stations like Mussoorie, Shimla, Narkanda, Manali, Kufri, Dalhousie, were witnessing the arrival of tourists in a large quantity who had been looking to get rid of the rising warm temperatures in the northern sides.