Tourism Minister: “Selfie danger zones” will ensure visitors’ safety

NEW DELHI, India – India’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma has said that State governments and Union Territory administrations are primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of visitors

NEW DELHI, India – India’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma has said that State governments and Union Territory administrations are primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of visitors to tourist sites, a ministry statement said on Wednesday. Establishing ‘selfie danger zones’ is one of the preventive measures they can take, he said.

In a written reply to a query, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma said it was incumbent upon states and UTs administrations to take such precautions to avoid “untoward” incidents. He also said his ministry took up, “the issue of ensuring safety and security of all tourists, domestic and international, with the State Governments and UT Administrations from time to time.”

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.”

Last year, 27 selfie-related deaths occurred around the word, and 15 of these deaths were reported in India, according to the Washington Post . For example, in January 2015, three college students from the NCR were run over by a speeding train on a track near Kosikala in Uttar Pradesh, when they tried to take a ‘daredevil selfie’ in front of it. And in November 2015, two college students drowned in the Narmada Canal near a village in Gujarat while trying to take a selfie of themselves on the waterfront.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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