Wildlife enthusiasts and tourists have news to cheer with the Supreme Court on Tuesday lifting the ban on safaris in tourism zones of the core tiger habitats in the country. The ban had been in effect for nearly four months following a public interest litigation petition.
Sources in the government told The Hindu that safaris across all tiger reserves in the State will be permitted soon after the receipt of a copy of the Supreme Court’s directions which have mentioned that all States will have to adhere to guidelines issued by the Union government on tiger safaris and conservation.
The guidelines drafted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority were notified by the Union on Monday.
It is stated that the Union government has conveyed to the court that there will no new permanent tourist facilities located inside the core areas of the reserve forests. There are 41 tiger reserves in the country and the State tops the list with five —Bandipur, Nagarahole, Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Range, Dandeli-Anshi and Bhadra.
Further, Karnataka also accounts for the highest number of tigers, nearly 300, as per the latest census and the ban on wildlife tourism which obviously had to do with much more than the man-animal conflict came about as a shock to not merely the wildlife enthusiasts but to the State Forest Department as well. Wildlife conservationists, however, had a different view given the fact resorts have come up in a big way on the fringes of the wildlife sanctuaries resulting in more harm to conservation activities.
The ban became effective in mid-July after the Supreme Court said that the States had failed to comply with the Union government’s notification that tourism in the core areas be phased out.
Karnataka is possibly the only State where private vehicles are barred from entering the tiger sanctuaries in view of an order of the Karnataka High Court.
Tourists can go on a safari only in the vehicles provided by Jungle Lodges and Resorts and the State Forest Department.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Deepak Sarmah and Managing Director of Karnataka Jungle Lodges and Resorts Limited P. Anur Reddy told The Hindu that the Supreme Court order is a big relief. The government-owned Jungles Lodges and Resorts is a major revenue earner for the Department of Tourism and it had suffered a “substantial loss” over the past few months.
All its lodges — Bhadra, Karapur (Nagarahole) and Bandipur — have a near 100 per cent occupancy round the year.
It should be noted that tourism activity, however, continued at Bheemeshwari, Bannerghatta, Bhagavathi (Kudremukh), Daroji Bear Sanctuary and Dubare since they are not part of the tiger sanctuaries.
Though the Supreme Court directive banned tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves, there was no clear-cut demarcation until recently between the core and the buffer zones particularly in Bhadra, Bandipur and Nagarahole resulting in frequent disputes between the personnel of the Forest Department and the wildlife enthusiasts. Added to this is the problem posed by excessive carrying capacity in the reserve forests which has been strongly opposed by conservationists.