Bengaluru: While the courts and wildlife conservation institutes are doing all they can to reduce the pressure of tourism on wild animals, the officials at Bandipur Tiger Reserve seem to be doing the opposite. They are even renting out a bus meant for transporting school children from Bandipur Tiger Reserve to a nearby town called Gundlupet, besides utilizing the services of vehicles belonging to the private resorts.
The Supreme Court has specified the numbers of trips which can be carried out in each tiger reserve, but its orders are being violated by the Bandipur authorities. As per the court orders, the Tiger Reserves can only make use of government vehicles. In the case of Bandipur, the vehicles that belong to the government- owned Jungle Lodges and Resorts and to the Forest Department can be used for its safari trips.
But in Bandipur, three vehicles, including a large truck which can accommodate 20 tourists belonging to Windflower Resorts, M C Resorts and the school bus, are being used. As per the carrying capacity orders, 22 vehicles could operate in Bandipur, but now the Park is operating 24 vehicles. That means six extra trips a day and close to 250 additional tourists are entering the sensitive Tiger Reserve.
Shockingly the safari occupants of the school bus, which was donated to help travelling children by an NGO called Good Neighbours, are not given any tickets as the Registration Number of the non-government bus cannot be put in the billing slip. This means money collected for a safari from 100 passengers travelling in this bus, goes unaccounted-for.
There are also complaints that every safari trip has an additional five to six passengers, some of whom are accommodated on the steps of the vehicle. The staff working at the Bandipur safari division, claims that they are under orders from seniors not to turn down any tourists who come for the safari. So the staff is arranging for private vehicles to meet the demand, violating all the directions from the Union government and the Supreme Court.
A few years ago, the forest department had brought about welcome reforms in the way safaris were operated in Bandipur. The vehicle drivers and the tourists were not allowed to carry any kind of communication sets with them, but recently the order was revoked, allowing the bus drivers to carry their mobile phones.
“This is causing congestion inside the forests like in other Tiger Reserves in north India. The drivers of the safari van who sight tigers, call all other vans to join them to see the tiger without caring about the disturbance caused to the animal due to such behaviour,” said a conservationist.
Mr Vinay Luthra, PCCF for Wildlife, said that the safari trips in Tiger Reserves are not being conducted over the carrying capacity. “We shall check if there are some irregularities in the way safari trips are conducted,” he said.
