Post tiger ban lift, industry remains cautious

It came as a breather when the Supreme Court gave the green signal for the resumption of tourism activities in the core tiger areas. While inbound tourism has been hit, the industry is expecting the domestic travel to pick up.

With

the Centre formally notifying fresh guidelines on tiger conservation, the Supreme Court has now cleared the decks for resumption of tourism activities in the areas reserved for the tiger. A Bench of justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar gave the green signal for resumption of tourism activities, modifying its July 24 order by which it had earlier halted all tourism-related activities in tiger reserve areas.

For the tourism industry that had earlier suffered a major setback, this directive from the SC comes as a big relief. Affected by revenue loss due to the uncertainty surrounding the ban on Wildlife Tourism since July this year, the industry is now looking forward to a busier season.

“It is now time to get back to work, to ensure that revenues that flow through park fees back into conservation and communities start flowing again, that livelihoods are restored and

legitimate busi- nesses are allowed to continue to show India’s very best natural heritage to its citizens,” Vishal Singh, Director, TOFT India points out. According to Singh, the breather is just a mixed blessing. “The SC has surely lifted the ban. But due to the stricter forest guidelines now, the number of jeeps getting into the core areas has been reduced. This in turn implies that lesser tourist can go inside the core areas. This only hurts the morale of the tour operators in the longer run,” he revealed.

“Due to ambiguous rules, each state is interpreting the ban-lift in its own way and thus, business is affected in some states while it is business as usual in the others. The state that has received a major setback is Madhya Pradesh. Ranthambore has not been hit hard despite of stricter forest guidelines by the Rajasthan government,” he claims. “Tour operators can still diversify business and garner revenues from alternate sources. However, the lodge owners are still at stake and will have to work out a new strategy to cope up with the new rules,” he adds.

Reiterating the concern of lodge and hotel owners in the forest reserves, almost 50 jeeps. With no guaranteed safaris, the tourists have become apprehensive about coming to wildlife parks, she adds.

Some hospitality companies affected by the ban are C. Gupta, Chairman - Uttar Pradesh Chapter, IATO and Director, Travel Bureau feels, “We have seen a 20 per cent drop in business for the month of October and November at our company. Inbound needs