The lifting of the interim ban on tourism in tiger reserves has brought a cheer to the tiger tourism industry though the Supreme Court has unequivocally placed the onus of responsibility of protection of the tiger reserves on the state governments.
Amit Sankala, director of Tiger Resorts, believes the Supreme Court has given a six month lead period for the creation of Tiger Protection Force (TPF) across all the 17 states in which tiger reserves are located.
“The TPF will have to receive funding because they will need to deploy many more people than are presently employed in manning these reserves. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has prepared a new set of guidelines but the key question is just how will these guidelines get executed on the ground,” Sankala said.
Under the new guidelines, the state governments have been mandated to charge a conservation fee from the tourism industry for eco-development and community upliftment work and this fee structure would be worked out on the basis of the room rents being charged by the hotels varying from `500 to `3,000 per room per month.
Mr Sankala feels these charges are extremely steep. “Tiger tourism is restricted to a six month period. Already, I am vacant for the months of October, November and December 2012 since foreigners do not want to face uncertainty. Except for a few lodges, the average lodge is not making the kind of remuneration that has been listed in the new guidelines,” Mr Sankala added. Belinda Wright, director of Wildlife Protection Society of India, accepts the verdict that tiger tourism needs to become more responsible and more involved in wildlife conservation issue but she also believes that “it is now up to the states to ensure that buffer zones and essential wildlife corridors also receive protection.”
TOFT chairman Julian Mathews regrets that the NTCA guidelines is a missed opportunity. He pointed out “97 per cent of India’s remaining forest landscape remains unloved and unprotected and increasingly devoid of wildlife, overgrazed and exploited. Sadly, there is nothing in these guidelines that gives anyone, the MoEF, communities or nature ‘road map’ as to how they can be restored, restocked and revitalised.”
The tourism industry has lobbied hard for the removal of this ban since the tourism industry is generating income of over `1000 crore per annum.