‘TOURIST CARS ENTERING TIGER RESERVES MUST BE 500M APART’

MUMBAI: Reiterating its 2012 guidelines, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has issued directions to all state chief wildlife wardens to ensure vehicles entering tiger reserves maintain a minimum distance of 500m from each other to avoid crowding around wild animals.

The move has drawn criticism from wildlife activists and environmentalists, who claimed that it was ‘unrealistic’ to implement the directions.

The NTCA had laid down the NTCA (Normative Standards of Tourism Activities and Project Tiger) guidelines in 2012 that had calculated the maximum tourist vehicles (jeeps, canters etc.) permitted to enter any tiger reserve per day based on the average tourist footfall and carrying capacity for a reserve. It mandated vehicles to maintain a 500m distance from each other.

“There are many complaints against reserves allowing vehicles and tourists above the carrying capacity. The 2012 rules are not being followed and vehicles are crowding around animals,” said Anup Nayak, member secretary, NTCA, who issued the direction. “We have reiterated the 2012 guidelines to ensure increased protection of these reserves,” he added.

Dr Rajesh Gopal, secretarygeneral of the Global Tiger Forum and former NTCA member secretary who had drafted the guidelines in 2012, said, “While spotting tigers is a major attraction, the movement of vehicles comes with issues like dust, noise and crowding around a single or group of animals. The direction issued in 2012 was based on past records and data collated by us. The compliance to the rules should be monitored consistently,” he said.

Belinda Wright, wildlife conservationist and executive director, Wildlife Protection Society of India said, “While NTCA must have thought carefully on this decision, having a distance of 500m between vehicles entering a park per day might be a problem as it will take hours for the vehicles to complete their journey.”

Another expert in the field requesting anonymity said, “The forest has winding roads, lesser visibility at times, and not much coordination between vehicles. There is no clarity on how the guidelines will be maintained.” However, Maharashtra forest department said it was an important decision. “Coming too close to wild animals is dangerous. There is a need to reiterate this with high tourism footfall in some areas,” Nitin Kakodkar, chief wildlife warden, Maharashtra.