Issuing an advisory, the Ministry of Tourism on Wednesday asked the administrations of state governments and Union Territories to put up barricades at these locations, along with signages warning visitors of the danger involved in taking selfies at such places.
Advertisement
“In recent times, several accidents at tourist sites while taking selfies at risky locations have been widely reported by the media”, Additional Director General Meenakshi Sharma stated in her letter to the heads of the state tourism departments.
Headed by a selfie-loving Prime Minister, the Centre is set to introduce a raft of measures to identify such danger zones at tourist sites across India.
Last year, India reportedly had the highest number of deaths among people trying to take selfies? Among them were a Japanese tourist who died after falling on the stairs of the Taj Mahal and seven students who drowned in a lake in Nagpur after their boat capsized.
The report says that at least 54 people have died in the year 2014 in attempt to get a ideal self-shot mobile photograph or selfie.
In January this year, an Austrian tourist injured herself and had to be rescued from a well after she fell in while taking a selfie at Junagadh. “The guidelines will include steps like putting up safety nets around all identified SDZs so that if anyone suffers a fall, fatalities can be avoided”. Earlier this year, Mumbai police department marked 16 selfie danger zones in the city.
Advertisement
Sharma added that the governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra had informed the tourism ministry that they’d “taken measures to create awareness through signs indicating danger zones including selfie danger zones”.
