Ooty may miss summer festival for second consecutive time as Covid-19 cases spike

Udhagamandalam: Now that the Covid-19 cases are on the rise, uncertainty looms large over the summer festival in Ooty that is usually held in May. In 2020 too, summer festivities such as flower show, rose show and fruit show were cancelled following the surge in the Covid infection.

However, the botanical and rose gardens, among other government parks, in the hill town are being maintained as usual.

District collector J Innocent Divya told TOI that no decision had been taken on conducting the summer festival this year.

Pointing out that they had begun planting flower saplings in the botanical and rose gardens in January, Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, joint director, horticulture department, said the gardens would be in full bloom in a week. “The Sim’s Park in Coonoor and Katteri Park are also being maintained as in the normal tourist seasons.”

He said around 25,000 potted plants were being put on display in the botanical garden, which is spread across 55 hectares. The garden sports more than 1.5 lakh plants of 198 varieties. “The potted plants are being arranged at the entrance of the garden.”

The official said they had restricted the entry of visitors to the park to below 50% of the usual figures as per the government orders. “Even otherwise, there has been a dip in the footfalls for the past one week.”

The botanical garden had seen 1,338 visitors on Friday and 1,175 on Thursday. The garden authorities have cordoned off the sprawling lawn to prevent tourists from crowding the area without maintaining social distancing.