All tourist spots in Mysuru closed

Mysuru: With increasing Covid-19 cases, in order to discourage tourists from coming to Mysuru for Dasara festivities, the Mysuru district administration has passed an order closing all tourism centres.

Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri said, "This year Dasara will be simple, traditional and virtual. We have the second highest number of cases after Bengaluru. We have an average of 500 to 600 cases per day. Almost 10 percent of State's deaths due to Covid-19 are being reported in Mysuru. In the death audit late testing has been found to be one of the main reasons for high death rate. So testing has been increased to 10,000 per day in Mysuru," she said.

She added, "In the previous years, at least one lakh people attended various Dasara programmes. So based on the technical committee recommendations, this year, in order to prevent further increase in cases and death rates, general public will not be allowed for Dasara this year. People can watch Dasara programmes live on electronic and social media."

"Since there are lot of holidays between 17 October to 1 November, the number of tourists are expected to increase. So to prevent that, Mysuru Zoo, Palace and Srikanteshwaara temple at Nanjangud will be closed from 17 October to 1 October. And Chamundeswari temple atop Chamundi hills will be closed from 14 October to 17 October and 23 October to 26 October," Ms Rohini Sindhuri said.

DC of neighboring Mandya district Dr M V Venkatesh also passed a similar order announcing closure of Brindavan garden at Krishna Raja Sagara dam, Ranganthittu bird sanctuary, from 24 October to 31 October.

Also Kodagu DC Annies Kanmani announced the closure of all tourism destinations in Kodagu from 17 to 26 October. And they have decided to celebrate Madikeri and Gonikoppa Dasara on 17 October in a simple way and finish all customs by 10 pm. They have also made Covid test report ( report of RTPCR test done 48 hours before) mandatory to attend Cauvery Theerthodbava at Talacauvery in Kodagu on 17 October.