Madhya Pradesh: Into the wild for Covid-safe New Year bash; jungle stays packed

BHOPAL: The ongoing pandemic has forced people to think outside the box to usher in the New Year. With ban on late night hotel parties, people have decided to go out and welcome the New Year in jungles and other places close to nature. All hotel rooms of the MP Tourism Development Corporation in the national parks and Pachmarhi are 100% booked. However, foreign tourists are completely missing.
This has come as good news for the tourism industry amidst spread of the deadly coronavirus, forcing the people to stay indoors.
A young traveller in Bhopal, Abhishek Das, is too excited for his proposed visit to Bandhavgarh, about 460 km from here. “Enough of corona, we want to bid farewell to 2020. Hope 2021 will actually bring good times.”
Raghav Rai, a resident of Jabalpur, which is close to Kanha national park, said, “My prayers for a really happy 2021.” Because of the pandemic this year, the number of tourists in the park has declined drastically. The foreign tourists are missing completely from the national park scene because of the pandemic and flight restrictions, said a private hotel owner.
“Otherwise, in the pre-Covid days, we would get all our hotels booked as soon as the parks opened on October 1,” he said. But this year, only people from a 500-km radius are reaching the park, a majority of them with their own vehicles.
SP Singh, regional manager MP Tourism Development Corporation in Jabalpur said, “All our units in the national parks are full for December 31. The bookings started in the last one month or so.”
A private hotel owner in Bandhavgarh national park said, “There is 100% Gypsy entry booking for the parks as it is done online. But most of the private hotels do not have good bookings for the coming days.” A hotel owner in Kanha national park said, “We expect the absence of foreign tourists in the next tourist season also because of the new coronavirus strain.”
Pachmarhi too is witnessing “good bookings in MP tourism hotels”. A large number of people have been reaching Pachmarhi for the past few months and the trend is continuing for the New Year too, MP Tourism Development Corporation sources said.