Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar, two of Kolkata’s largest parks, are still allowing visitors for only five hours a day.
Both parks are open from 6am to 9am, and again from 4pm till 6pm.
On Monday, The Telegraph saw guards at the gates of the two parks preventing entry of visitors from 9am.
An official of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the custodian of the parks, said they would study the Covid case numbers till the end of February before deciding whether the two premises would remain open for longer durations.
Another official of the KMDA said Rabindra and Subhas Sarovars were being kept open for a shorter period to protect the birds at the parks. “Crowding could lead to destruction of the birds’ habitats. So we are going slow in returning to the pre-pandemic schedule,” the official said.
In contrast to the Sarobars, the parks run by Kolkata Municipal Corporation have returned to the pre-pandemic hours, following a drastic drop in new infections. The ones that would remain open from 6am till 9pm before Covid struck have resumed doing so.
Before the pandemic struck, Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar remained open from the morning till the evening.
Regular visitors to the Sarobars said the KMDA’s decision to keep the parks closed for most of the day, despite a sharp fall in the Covid count, defied logic.
Doctors, too, said there was no logic behind keeping parks closed for most of the day. “Open spaces like parks have always been the least risky spaces, even at the height of the pandemic. From a medical point of view, there is absolutely no reason to keep parks closed, now that the number of cases has dropped,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, an infectious disease specialist at Peerless Hospital.
“Covid spreads through droplets that are driven away by air. Chances of spread of Covid is lesser in open air spaces than in enclosed ones.”
Sudip Ghosh, a Rabindra Sarobar regular, said: “When everything else is open throughout the day, there is no reason to keep parks closed. We are having very good weather now. It is neither too hot nor too cold. Many people, especially the elderly, feel more comfortable to visit parks in the late morning.”
Vinita Poddar, a resident of New Alipore, used to walk at Rabindra Sarobar every evening till the pandemic forced the park to shut down. Vinita, an interior designer and a mother of two, said she found it convenient to walk in the evening, after completing her domestic and professional commitments.
Joydeep Phukan, another Rabindra Sarobar regular, was incensed when he found guards blowing whistles and asking visitors to vacate the premises from 8.55am on Saturday. “This is absurd. Closing down a park at 9am has no logic,” he said. “It seems like prison inmates are being ordered to return to their cells after their time to stay in the open is over.”