tiger reserves closed for public

[dr.jayakumar]

friends,
since last tuesday night all tiger reserves have been closed due to supreme court order that all tiger reserves are closed.i was in kabini resort for a week and was very disappointed that we couldn't go for safari.the reason for closing seems to be that the tourists are disturbance to wildlife,which they are to some extent.but to the contrary the number of tiger have increased recent years.wildlife tourism is at stake now.wildlife enthusiast are at loss.
regards
dr.jk

[shashankspectral]

I am sure they will soon change the decision. THey hav done it after seeing lacklustre attitude from state govt to make buffer zone arnd tiger reserve and manage tiger tourism properly which many state govt. are not keen on doing.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

A very good and pending decision SC sentenced to preserve our wild cats.. There are several NHs through the forest in many states, killing a number of animals due to over speed..

Half of the tourists dont know how to maintain silence in the jungle and more over colorful dress, waste disposal sense is poor.Repeated safaries put the animals under lot of pressure as everytime many more energetic people are visiting their home.
I am sure the true conservationalists will be happy with this decision.
I was making a plan to visit tadoba and pench soon but realized the conservation of the cats are much more importance then me trying to become NGC crew or valmik thapar..

I support this cause.

[PRITAM PATEL]

I welcome this order by Hon. Supreme Court.

When only few thousand Tigers left, batter we let them breed in peace ( without camera touting so called wild life tourists )

this sure will help increase their population and keep forests free from plastic waste for a while.

regards

[dr.jayakumar]

dear vassili(russian sniper) and patil,
instead of closing the santuary they can regulate the tourist flow.i am a wwf member and have been actively taking part in conservation.closing down the santuary will not help conservation,will only help poachers.
i pray this situation does not continue.
regards
dr.jk

[brihacharan]

Quote: dr.jayakumar » Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:18 pm
dear vassili(russian sniper) and patil,
instead of closing the santuary they can regulate the tourist flow.i am a wwf member and have been actively taking part in conservation.closing down the santuary will not help conservation,will only help poachers.

> Closure of Tiger Reserves / Sanctuaries is a 'misguided initiative'....
> Instead 'Strict Vigilance' of visitors on a 24 x 7 basis is the answer.
> Educating the visitors on the importance of 'Conservation' should be done through short films / audio visuals prior to allowing the visitors (they can be let in batchwise at appointed times)inside the sanctuaries.
> It would also be advisable to display 'Banners' outside the sanctuaries about the liable punishment - such as fines & imprisonment for any violation.
Briha

[Vassili Zaitsev]

Sirjis, with due respect and my little experience say that it is very difficult to educate tourists once they are inside a national park. No posters and education can help. Very few handfuls of people actually listen to the actual instruction of the forest guards and the conservator. Everyone wants to see tiger and has only 2 to 3 safaris to cover the areas so the excitement is high and noise is more.
Conservation films are playing in almost everywhere and yet people are not very aware on buying smokes and throwing plastics packets inside the prohibited areas.
Closing of sanctuary should be valid till the tourists are able to understand the territory of a tiger and difference between core and bafar areas.
The Forest guards should be well equipped with all the modern gadgets to search and scan the entire areas to prohibit the poacher’s entry. The villages should be relocated and the unemployed youths or people should be absorbed in the forest guard related jobs.
I do agree with you all here but sadly this is almost the same story with all the national parks except Sunderbans……where truly the “Trespassers Will Be Eaten”..

[Ace_doc]

dear vassili(russian sniper) and patil,
instead of closing the santuary they can regulate the tourist flow.i am a wwf member and have been actively taking part in conservation.closing down the santuary will not help conservation,will only help poachers.
i pray this situation does not continue.
regards
dr.jk

+1.

[essdee1972]

Folks,

My first reaction was the same as Dr. Jayakumar and Brihacharan. Tourists provide at least some protection from poachers (just by being there), provide ready cash for our perpetually delinquent forest deptt., etc.

But then I remembered what I have seen in sanctuaries:

1. Loud music from car stereos. Why do you need to hear artificial recorded music in a scenario where every bird is ready to give a live performance is beyond me! But then I am 40 now....
2. Bacchanalian singing (also causing nuisance to lady visitors apart from disturbing the fauna).
3. A disco running in a bus (yeah really, music and dancing inside a bus!!). Technically we spotted this on the way to a sanctuary.
4. Plastic, plastic, more plastic. It is amazing what we manage to throw out in terms of plastic!!!
5. People bribing guides and mahouts to get close to tigers for a pic, irrespective of whether the tiger is sleeping, mating, or otherwise occupied. I am myself guilty of the same in Dudhwa, even though I did not own a camera at that time (and did not get to see the Striped One, anyway).

Most of these take place despite notices, warnings, etc. Recall that in all zoos "Do not feed the animals" is posted in almost all the million and a half languages we Indians speak, but then, every zoo has peanut vendors outside, who openly sell "for the monkeys and birds". Except Mysore.

Now I am divided in my own mind on this issue!!

[fantumfan2003]

I only hope it does not give the poachers a free run.....

M.

[dr.jayakumar]

Sirjis, with due respect and my little experience say that it is very difficult to educate tourists once they are inside a national park. No posters and education can help. Very few handfuls of people actually listen to the actual instruction of the forest guards and the conservator. Everyone wants to see tiger and has only 2 to 3 safaris to cover the areas so the excitement is high and noise is more.
Conservation films are playing in almost everywhere and yet people are not very aware on buying smokes and throwing plastics packets inside the prohibited areas.
Closing of sanctuary should be valid till the tourists are able to understand the territory of a tiger and difference between core and bafar areas.
The Forest guards should be well equipped with all the modern gadgets to search and scan the entire areas to prohibit the poacher’s entry. The villages should be relocated and the unemployed youths or people should be absorbed in the forest guard related jobs.
I do agree with you all here but sadly this is almost the same story with all the national parks except Sunderbans……where truly the “Trespassers Will Be Eaten”..

dear vassili,
how is that our fellow country men when they are abroad,in malasia ,singapore or any other are able to stick to the rules:not spit,throw papers etc?i have visited some santuaries which accept no nonsense from visitors.if the rest of the forest follow the same,we won't have this problem i feel.
anyhow i will miss the wildlife till the order is revoked.
regards
dr.jk

[.338 lapua]

[instead of closing the santuary they can regulate the tourist flow.i am a wwf member and have been actively taking part in conservation.closing down the santuary will not help conservation,will only help poachers.
i pray this situation does not continue.]
closing sanctuary is not going to help in anyway,by doing so one is also closing the source of income to the sanctuaries,people should be educated and the guards who accompany the tourists should be given the power's to penalize whoever does not follow the rules laid down.

[xl_target]

I agree 100% with Dr. J and .338lapua
The reason people behave badly is because they feel they can get away with their bad behavior. Laws are not enforced or only enforced selectively. Many people feel they can skirt the laws by bribing law enforcement if they get caught.
When there are penalties for bad behavior, everyone behaves. So it is partly an issue of lax or non-existent enforcement. If someone is caught littering, fine them. If someone is caught deliberately flouting the rules in any sanctuary, eject them immediately. If any law enforcement official is caught accepting bribes, fire them and throw them in jail (When was the last time you say that? Maybe during "the emergency" in the 1970's). Punishing the majority for the bad behavior of a few is not the answer.
We have discussed this phenomenon before. It applies to discharging firearms in city limits (celebratory firing). People do it, in India, because they know they will not get caught. Then they use lame excuses like "everyone is doing it". You do that in the US and they will take away your firearms and if you are charged with a felony and convicted, you will lose the right to ever own firearms. The chances of getting caught are almost 100% in most of the US.

[shashankspectral]

Tiger tourism is very important for tigers survival. This is a blanket ban and i am pretty sure will be revoked soon. Our tiger reserve are overun with tourist and touts alike. A strict regulation is needed.

[slingshot]

I had a discussion on this subject with one of my friends, who is an ardent tiger conservationist. He recently wrote on the subject and some excerpts of his comments are below. I am sharing this with you, since he, like Dr. Jayakumar, provides a very compelling and logical argument on the subject :
****************************************************************************************************
'The recent reported 'firman' by the National Tiger Conservation Authority ( NTCA) that in 5 years tourism will be banned in the 'core areas' (whatever that might mean !) of tiger reserves, coupled with the laudible intent to charge 10% of turnover to resorts for local development, indicates the peculiar monocular view with which authority percieves the conservation issue in the country.

This policy statement will ofcourse gladden the hearts of poachers, smugglers, and the corrupt who collude with them. These elements hate visitors coming to tiger parks, because it hampers their poaching and smuggling activities. Right now during the monsoon when the parks are completely closed- a hangover from the days of the Raj - the poachers and smugglers and their 'friends' of various varieties are having a field day.

Everyone should support the 10% charge on resorts for development, because local support is the most fundamental requirement for a successful conservation strategy. And we must ensure that the money goes for development and not for yet another scam! However if tourism is going to be banned in 5 years why will the tourists (and you better believe they do come to see the magnificent tiger in its habitat) come to the tiger reserves? and if tourists do not come, where will the resorts get the money to pay the 10% on their turnover for the local development ??

Even in policy making, and especially in policy making, we have to ensure that we do not 'put a gun in a monkeys hand' because then they will end up shooting and killing the very purpose for which the policy was first drafted.

As Aristotle observed no organization can grow bigger than the Idea and the Spirit that first created it. The Forest Department was created by the British to get a fix on the people they ruled, to assess how much resource they could extract out of forests, eg billions of tons of Sal wood for the railways, and ofcourse to mantain the forest for the sport of hunting for the Viceroy, Governors, their Indian camp followers and the like. The basic idea was to keep the 'natives' out of the forests and keep it 'reserved' for the rulers.

From its very inception the fundamental attitude of most foresters in India has been anti visitor (in Independent India at that !!) and pro politician and bureaucracy. It is quite disgusting to see politicians and bureaucrats descending ( sometimes in helicopters) onto the tiger reserves without paying, like their British predecessors, with their families and sidekicks.They are given "VIP" treatment by the forest authorities, who have forgotten their professional oath to the constitution, and who run up and down like house servants pleasing their every whim. The citizen and the foreign visitor who pay enormous sums to legally enter the park are not treated as guests, like in many other countries, but infact treated as intruders !!!

Around 40 years ago when Mrs. Gandhi started Project Tiger (God Bless Her !) there were close to 3000 tigers in India. Four decades later after hundreds of crores of rupees have been spent, many 'brilliant officers' have proclaimed their own greatness, and huge government bureaucracies have been created, there are purportedly only 1706 tigers left. So what have they done in the last 40 years with such claims to greatness!? Unless ofcourse they will claim that their job is to preside over the eventual and gradual extinction of the tiger!

Albert Einstein used to say that one of the marks of insanity was to continue with the same process again ! and again ! and again ! even after it continues to fail everytime. We have been subject to the 'Wisdom' of more or less the same 'Wise Men From The East!' for the last 40 years of tiger-decline and it would be insanity to continue to with their spurious claims to wisdom and their policy prescriptions.

But like in so many other areas of Indian public life, these persons continue to 'cling' to power without any accountability. A little research will show that the worthies who want to ban tourism are the same persons who have oiled, soiled, and toiled, their way to power, for 30 years, and have formulated failed policies, and will not either learn anything new, or go and make way for new blood.

To get a perspective for this analysis it is important to understand the see change that has taken place in the area of Environment, Forests & Bio diversity in last century. What used to be seen as a wilderness area, meant to be exploited, and meant for hunting : 'Vermin' was the term used by the forest departments for the Indian Wild Dog, has now suddenly like Hans Christian Andersons Ugly Duckling been tranformed into a Swan!!

Wild Life & Adventure Tourism has become a Gold Mine ! It is the fastest growing segment of the biggest industry in the world after Oil, which is Tourism. It has an enormous capacity to earn for the countrys economy. The Kreuger National Park,effectively marketed, with an area 17455 odd sq km. which has half a million tourist visitors, earns a billion dollars a year for the nation of South Africa. In Vidarbha with twice the forest area of the Kreuger Park at around 38 k sq.km. with no marketing and virtually no visitors, the only elements who earn anything are the poachers, smugglers, and the corrupt who collude with them. Who cares about the Nation and the Economy?!!

The attached paper shows how Vidarbha can earn between six, and ten thousands crores! from the wild life sector of the economy, and also simultaneously nurture the environment. It must be remembered that in this sector of the economy unlike in other sectors; the economy and the environment have to be mutually supportive. If anyone wishes to address issues pertaining to this assertion I would be happy to discuss it intelligently.

What are the lessons to learn from successful models the world over ? Whether it is the Kreuger, and the Masai Mara in Africa, The Yala Park in Sri Lanka, The Chitwan Park (before the naxalites) in Nepal, or the Yellowstone Park in the USA. The single most important lesson is that effectively managed Wild Life Tourism is the Life Blood of Conservation all over the world. It brings in the resources to do Research and Conservation, mantains the parks, addresses the welfare of the parks employees, upgrades technology, develops the communities juxtaposed to the parks, and gains their invaluable support for conservation activities, and generally earns for the country in many areas which are other wise seen as backward.

So therefore if the case for managed Wild Life & Adventure Tourism being the Life Blood of Conservation, is so clear why is it not being reflected in policy? which is advocating a ban on tourism! The answer is clear and is reflected in Abraham Maslows statement that if the only solution you have is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail !

It is a matter of the Inertia of the past and of Education. Remember the old adge ' show me the organizations education system, and I will show you that organizations future.' Officials are taught that their primary focus is Research and Conservation,and we know what they have done in both areas in Sariska and Panna.

The case is being made that Officials of all parks have to be Trained and Educated and made accountable for the EARNINGS from the park, as also for the Hospitality, Education and Entertainment of the Guests which will in due course increase the earnings from the parks assets. These resources should be ploughed back for the local development of the communities living juxtaposed to the parks which is essential for any Conservation effort.

This also means that if any visitor breaks the law he/she must be dealt with ruthlessly and discipline must be mantained at all times. After all no one is allowed to fly in a plane without fastening the seat belt, and just try breaking the law in the Kreuger, in Yellow Stone or the more sanitised environment of Singapore.

Most officials of parks and reserves are focussed on protecting the existing numbers of tigers in the areas within their charge. However the proposition is that we should assess the stable numbers of tigers which a park can sustain given its area, its prey base, etc, and then try and increase the numbers of tigers to this sustainable level, with 'selsective baiting' if necessary.