Most of us love travelling, but we must be mindful of the fact that there are some basic etiquettes that every tourist needs to abide by when visiting a place within the country or beyond. But there have been several reported instances about Indian tourists defacing monuments or vandalising public property. Remember the ₹200 Cr Gupta wedding that ruined Uttarakhand’s Auli or how Delhiites turned the ‘Signature Bridge’ into a paan-stained dump? Well, this time it’s a man from Maharashtra who thought taking a picture atop a holy Chorten (sacred monument) in Bhutan would be cool.
The person identified as Abhijit Ratan Hajare from Maharashtra climbed over a Chorten in Bhutan’s Dochula Pass. According to News18, he was accompanied by a convoy of 15 other people who were resting in the vicinity of the Dochula Pass when the incident happened.
Several images of the incident were shared on social media. In one of the images shared by a local newspaper on twitter, the tourist is seen climbing a ladder to the top of the memorial structure.
1/3 Breaking: The tourist in the biker outfit is Abhijit Ratan Hajare from the Indian state of Maharashtra.
In the second picture the man sitting on the ladder is a Bhutanese citizen and carpenter, Jambay, who was doing repair works on the Chortens pic.twitter.com/Mq3vn2VKSI
— The Bhutanese (@thebhutanese) October 18, 2019
In the second picture a man who is identified as a Bhutanese citizen, Jambay, is seen sitting on the ladder. Jambay is a carpenter and was repairing the Chortens, that is why he had a ladder.
Hajare reportedly came across Jambay who allowed them to climb the ladder. The police are now looking for him. The convoy was in fact led by a Bhutanese national, but the entire incident happened in his absence.
According to The Bhutanese, “Abhijit, whose passport has been taken by the RBP (Royal Bhutan Police) has been called in for questioning today. RBP is launching its investigation today. The Indian tourist came across Jambay and he allowed them to climb the ladder. The RBP is in the process of tracking Jambay down.”
3/3 Abhijit whose passport has been taken by the RBP has been called in for questioning today.
RBP is launching its investigation today.
The Indian tourist came across Jambay and he allowed them to climb the ladder. The RBP are in the process of tracking Jambay down.
— The Bhutanese (@thebhutanese) October 18, 2019
According to NDTV, Hajare was detained by the local police for disrespecting the sacred monument but was released after writing an apology to the police. There are 108 such stupas at Dochula that were built in the memory of Bhutanese soldiers who died in a military strike.
Here’s the video:
The video of Indian Tourist Abhijit Ratan Hajare from Maharashtra climbing the chorten.
Source: WeChat. pic.twitter.com/MwxzcvjLVl— The Bhutanese (@thebhutanese) October 18, 2019
Our love to explore doesn’t justify the acts of disgrace that most of the tourists do when in a foreign land. Are we ever going to learn from our mistakes?