The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has registered a case with the Cyber Crime Police in the Nilgiris against the operators of a website for charging exorbitant rates in order to book wildlife safaris for tourists.
Officials said that the website, www.mudumalainationalpark.in, at first glance, looks like a certified website that is run by the forest department, and said that there was a chance that tourists could mistake the website to be the forest department’s official website to book safaris within the tiger reserve.
Officials added that the website had inflated rates for safaris offered to tourists by the forest department. “When an inquiry is made with the phone number provided on the website, the person makes the booking at an inflated fee,” said an official from the department.
The website is part of a larger conglomerate that aggregates information about other wildlife tours and safaris from across India, officials added.
C. Vidhya, Deputy Director of MTR (Buffer Zone), said that the forest department has requested the Cyber Crime Cell to block the website as they were not authorized by the forest department to offer or to book safaris for tourists.
