South Dinajpur: Picnics banned in forests

BALURGHAT: If you wish to host a picnic in any of the forests in South Dinajpur to celebrate New Year, here is some bad news as the district Forest department has imposed a complete ban on picnics due to the surge in Covid cases in the region.

"Covid cases have increased in the region and we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Following the spike in Covid cases, we have imposed a complete ban on picnics and, therefore, no picnicker will be entertained inside the forest," said a Forest department official.

According to him, the Forest personnel are now conducting raids in forests on a regular basis so that no one can get entry inside any forest of the district for picnic purposes. "The same ban was imposed by our department last year also for the same reason. We have also requested the high-ranked police officials to deploy police personnel inside the forest premises if required," he said.