Covid-negative certificates required to enter parts of rural Karnataka

As a part of a self-imposed lockdown, villages in Chitradurga and Davanagere districts of Karnataka now ask for on Covid-negative certificates not more than three days old to allow entry, reports The Print.

“You have come in. We are speaking to you only because you are from the media. Otherwise, the moment we see a new vehicle in our village, we stop them and ask them to return,” Chanchaveerapa of Sidannur village in Davanagere, told The Print.

Residents in various rural parts of India have used barricades, bamboo, shrubs, and tractors on the peripheries of their lands, in order to stop people from entering their area. However, villagers in Chitradurga and Davanagere have decided to follow the same model until a vaccine to cure the virus is found.

These villagers are also relying on traditional methods to safeguard their areas. They use cow milk for immunity and cow dung to cleanse their houses.

A gram panchayat member, Kamlamma, in Sidannur, told The Print that they will continue with this and other restrictions until the government announces that Covid cases have fallen to zero.