Tourists throw caution to the wind at city heritage sites

Bangalore Covid-19 Pandemic

“The thermal guns mostly do not give the right results; therefore, we seldom use it,” said the security guard at the Bangalore Fort.

Bangalore—Visitors and authorities at several tourist spots and monuments in the city ignored Covid-19 protocols.  

The multi-tasking staff (MTS) at the Bangalore Fort said that they sometimes forget to use the thermal gun as they do not show accurate results. No person to date has recorded a temperature of more than 99-degree Fahrenheit.

The fort does not have a sanitizer stand at the entrance. The MTS said that most visitors carry their own sanitizers and prefer using them. Though, they have a sanitizer bottle that the visitors can use manually, people consider it unsafe as they feel that the bottle has been touched by several others, he added.

Sumona Kar, a visitor at Tipu Sultan’s summer palace said, “Despite the rising cases in Bangalore these people are not strictly following  the rules and regulations. They are allowing people inside the fort, without asking them to follow the protocols and they themselves are roaming around without masks─ When the authorities themselves are so carefree about the virus, how can they ask the visitors to follow the protocols?” she asked.

A guide at the Tipu Sultan Palace said that the thermal gun that they used earlier went out of order in mid-January.   He added that the authorities recently placed an order for the gun, but hasn’t received it yet.

An official sat inside the premises in a corner without wearing a mask. He said that he wasn’t wearing a mask because he was away from the visitors and did not fear either being infected or infecting others. He was almost all the time circled by other officials, guides and even visitors.He said that most of people around were not wearing masks because most of them came from villages and they couldn’t find masks in their areas.

Regional Level Guide (RLG), Anil V. Moghe, from the Government of India Tourist Guide Association said, “The guides can only request the people to follow the protocols, but can’t go any further. The public authorities despite being aware of the situation have to function under certain limitations. Therefore, the visitors themselves have to be careful about the menace.”

Several visitors continued to roam around with their masks pulled down.

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