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Nainital tourists scream at locals after being asked not to litter in viral video: ‘Mind your own business’
A couple of tourists in Naintial were filmed screaming at people who allegedly asked them not to litter on the road.
A couple of tourists in Naintial were filmed screaming at people who allegedly asked them not to litter on the road. Footage of the argument was shared online by Instagram user Shinjini Sengupta, whose sister confronted the tourists after they allegedly threw an empty packet and tissues on the road instead of putting them in a dustbin.
Sengupta told HT.com that her sister confronted two women for throwing a box of cake and an empty packet on the roadside. She said that the incident took place at Nainital’s Lover’s Point, a popular tourist destination.
Here’s what happened
According to Sengupta, the two women cut a cake and threw tissues on the roadside instead of putting them in a dustbin. This happened on December 14 in Nainital. The women were accompanied by a man in a car. Sengupta’s video shows the women yelling after being confronted about littering on the roads. The car in which they arrived at Lover’s Point bore a Lucknow number plate.
Shinjini Sengupta was holidaying in Nainital with her sister when she saw the two women throwing tissues on the road after cutting a cake.
The elder of the two women then threw the cake packet on the road too. At this point, Sengupta’s sister politely asked the women to discard their waste in a dustbin.
“They answered, ‘There's no dustbin. Dikhao kahan hai. Hai hi nahi, etc etc,” she told HT.com. Roughly translated, it means that the tourists insisted that there was no dustbin in sight.
“My sister insisted that the shop next door is an eatery, they must have bins (you can see ‘use dustbin’ written on the railing also in the video),”Sengupta told HT.com. However, the women remained adamant about not throwing their waste in the dustbin. They allegedly insisted that the road was already dirty and one more waste item would not make a difference.
Confronted by locals
At this point, a local shopkeeper stepped into the picture and asked the women to put the cake box in the dustbin as authorities penalise local shopkeepers for littering.
“He specifically requested them to put the waste in the bin, citing that police fines the shops for litter. Their driver then threw the bag into the valley,” Sengupta said.
Seeing this, the shopkeeper remarked that he had asked for the box to be put in a dustbin, not thrown into the valley. The exchange escalated into a heated argument, a snippet of which was shared on Instagram by Sengupta.
The video shows the younger of the two women yelling at the people who confronted her for littering. “Mind your own business,” she was heard saying in the video.
According to Sengupta, a female shopkeeper also intervened and explained the benefits of keeping the area clean. However, the tourists refused to pay heed.
Backlash online
The argument between the tourists and locals has gone viral on Instagram, where many slammed the tourists for littering.
“Shame on those who litter everywhere. And worst part is they call themselves educated,” wrote one commenter.
“People will never learn unless they are heavily fined,” another opined.
Several identified the tourists as belonging to Lucknow from their license plate and asked that they be fined heavily.
