No food, games or PDA: As Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park enforces rules, visitors complain

“These rules are not new. They have been existing for years, and we are now strictly enforcing them because of the high visitor count,” a horticulture department official said. “Usually, we used to see 2,000-3,000 visitors daily; this time, we are witnessing nearly 6,000- 8,000 visitors daily. We cannot allow food because people do not maintain cleanliness, which ultimately invites rats. We don’t allow kids to bring bat, ball or football because playing games would damage the sprinkler system and other accessories responsible for irrigation,” the official added.

Responding to allegations of ‘moral policing’, the official said, “We are not targeting couples. All we are asking them is to avoid sitting in bushy places where there is snake movement. We want to mitigate any risk of any encounter with the snake. Otherwise, we are totally okay with lovers spending time in the public park.”

S Umesh, advocate and president of Cubbon Park Walker’s Association, said they requested the horticulture department to act against certain couples as “it is not right for lovers or couples to get into physical intimacy in front of children and cause embarrassment”.

A security guard admitted that the authorities have directed them to keep watch on lovers. (Express Photo)

“Cubbon Park is an internationally recognised park with visitors from different parts of the country. When they witness these couples in physical intimacy and indulging in obscenity, it will cause a major embarrassment. Hence we requested the horticulture department to take action against such couples and announce warnings through loudspeakers against such acts,” he added.

A security guard admitted that the authorities have directed them to keep watch on lovers. “We need to ensure that the lovers don’t get into physical intimacy or any obscenity. Despite flagging them, the couples shift to another place and repeat the same thing. As per rules, we cannot allow them to get obscene with their behaviour,” the guard said. “We stop kids from climbing trees in order to protect and preserve them,” another guard piped in.

However, this has not gone well with Bengalurueans, who have opposed the act of policing and restrictions on people’s freedom.

“A park is a community space. As our cities are becoming more commercial, with more malls, restaurants and paid spaces, leisure is becoming very expensive. Leisure is essential for citizens to have a good quality of life. Parks are the only spaces left in the city where we can slow down, reconnect and enjoy leisure time. The state should not police people as this makes it highly exclusionary. Parks are for people. Locking it during the day or imposing moral restrictions is denying people their rights,” Nischita Verrendra, a regular visitor to Cubbon Park, said.

Prithesh Bhandary, a theatre artist belonging to Bhandutva theatre group, alleged that the guards often try to “restrict their performances”. “We are a bunch of theatre artists who perform at Cubbon Park highlighting issues of transport and environment. We have had encounters with security guards regularly who try to interfere and ask us to stop the play, reduce our voice and impose other restrictions. Although other visitors enjoy watching our play, the security guards cite disturbance to neighbours and try to restrict our performances,” he said.

Harish Bijoor, a brand strategist, was against the ‘policing’. “CubbonPark is a park!Please don’t make it a policed-park!With rigid rules!The moment you empower a guard with a lathi& a whistle, you are destroying it all!We don’t need a policed-park!We need a freedom-park(within bounds of decency)!A park that belongs to all!,” he posted on Twitter.