Land Rover operators and homestay owners have decided not to accept tourist bookings for sometime in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country and in the absence of a government-announced lockdown.

The Land Rovers take tourists to Sandakphu, the highest point in Bengal situated at around 11,900-feet, from Maneybhanjyang, a small town on the fringes of Singalila National Park. Other taxis are reluctant to travel to Sandakphu given the difficult terrain.

Chandan Pradhan, the secretary of the Singalila Land Rover Owners’ Welfare Association, said on Tuesday: “Our members decided not to take tourists to Sandakphu from today given the surge in Covid19 cases in our region. These days, we do not know who is carrying the virus.”

Homestays in Darjeeling File picture

A total of 80 Land Rovers are registered with the association.

Tourists visiting Darjeeling from the rest of Bengal do not have to produce Covid19 negative test results unlike travellers to Sikkim.

In Bengal, only air passengers arriving from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana have to produce reports of RTPCR tests conducted within 72 hours of taking flights.

However, in neighbouring Sikkim, all tourists entering the state have to produce the RTPCR report and register on the state government’s portal. Even residents of Sikkim entering the state from outside need to have the test results or else, they have to go in for 10 days of quarantine.

“We will start plying Land Rovers for tourists only after the situation gets better,” said Pradhan.

The Singalila National Park is open to tourists till June 15 every year. After a three-month closure, the park is again opened to visitors from September 15 onwards.

Not just the Land Rovers’ operators, many homestay owners have also decided not to take bookings for some time.

There are 337 registered homestays in Kalimpong, which is the highest for a district in Bengal. This is fol¬lowed by South 24Parganas’s 78 and Darjeeling’s 63 registered homestays.

“We cannot expose our fa¬milies, villagers to outsiders,” said a homestay owner.

A hotelier in Darjeeling said tourist flow had come down in the hills over the past few days. “We just have some business clients, who have to visit town for official work. Those bookings are just for a night or two,” said a hote¬lier.

Darjeeling district registered the highest spike in Covid19 cases on Tuesday with 424 people being tested positive. They included 191 in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation area, 21 in Darjeeling municipality and 41 in other hill areas like Sukhiapokhri, Bijanbari, Takdah and Mirik.