Uttarakhand: Mussorie restricts entry to Kempty Falls after video of crowd goes viral; 50 people allowed at one time

The authorities in Uttarakhand have said that a maximum of 50 people will be allowed at Kempty Falls, Mussoorie. The visitors can spend 30 minutes at the fall, after which an air horn will be used in order to indicate that their time is up, reports said. Accordign to News18, the announcement was made by the district magistrate Iva Ashish Shrivastava. The order has come after an undated video of the Kempty Falls went viral where a maskless crowd can be seen bathing and flouting social distancing norms. There are speculations that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic might hit the country in August. At a time like this, videos of people holidaying without masks have been a cause of concern for the authorities. The Kempty Falls video caused outrage on social media because people did not wear masks and were in close proximity to each other. In the video, several people can be seen crowding the falls and enjoying themselves without following social distancing norms. However, Uttarakhand is not the only state experiencing an influx of tourists currently. Other hilly states like Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are also seeing a rise in the number of tourists visiting these states. Reacting to the viral pictures and videos, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry called it “revenge travel”. He further said that people need to understand that the fight against coronavirus is a continuous fight and the deadly virus can be controlled only with COVID-appropriate behaviour. Recently, another video from Dharamshala surfaced online where a little boy was seen asking people on the streets to wear masks. The boy was holding a plastic stick and poking the passersby for not wearing masks.