GUWAHATI: The Tour Operators’ Association of Assam has said that the Supreme Court’s order banning tourism in core areas of tiger reserves would not affect tourism in Assam.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati today, Tour Operators’ Association of Assam president Debojit Bora said, “The Supreme Court has clearly stated that tourism should be banned or regulated in core areas of tiger reserves. While this may have an effect on tourism in certain tiger habitats in the rest of the country, in Assam we need not be concerned because the jeep safari and the elephant safari routes in the national parks and tiger reserves of Assam have been well-defined.

The temporary halt to tourism in core zones of tiger reserves is a wake-up call to an industry that has grown rapidly and become disruptive in some places. Rather than view the Supreme Court’s interim order as a setback, tourism operators should see it as an opportunity to set things right. While there is no question that commercial tourism must be strictly regulated, a total ban on public access to wildlife reserves would be extremely harmful, as it will negatively impact conservation education, monitoring and other conservation activities by non-governmental organisations.

Sensible tourism has an important role to play in conservation, and if government and tourism stakeholders work together, it is possible to craft solutions that benefit local communities, nature lovers, tourism operators and, most importantly, wildlife itself.

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Whose right is it to stop visitors?

The interim ban on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves has already started to tell on those who depend on tourists.

The recent ban by the Supreme Court on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves in India raises some fundamental questions:

1. Is tourism, however intense, the real culprit behind the killings of tigers and their seemingly low breeding capacity?
2. If after four decades of implementing the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and efforts by Project Tiger and the National Tiger Conservation Authority, tigers are near extinction today, can banning reserve tourism reverse the situation?
3. Can people be denied the right to visit national parks to watch the most admired animal in the world?

Supreme Court’s interim order banning tourism in core tiger areas raises debate whether there are any guidelines for it and how harmful it can be to the wildlife and its habitat in protected areas.

What exactly constitutes ecotourism is the question thrown up by the Supreme Court’s interim order banning tourism in core tiger areas. Critical to the debate is whether there are any guidelines for it and how harmful it can be to the wildlife and its habitat in protected areas.

A strategic village, located in the core of the park, moved out

Men are finally making way for tigers in Rajasthan’s celebrated Ranthambhore National Park (RNP). With residents of yet another forest village located in the core moving out on Wednesday, the tigers proliferating in the park will now have more inviolate space, and surely more fun. The Ranthambhore watchers, and there are quite a few, vouchsafe that re-locating Mordoongri, situated in the strategic corridor between RNP and the Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary, should be considered a breakthrough.

Following the Supreme Court order, State wildlife authorities on Wednesday, banned tourism in the three tiger reserves of Mudumalai in Udhagamandalam, Anamalai near Pollachi, and Kalakkad – Mundanthurai in Tirunelveli district.

Officials in the forest headquarters said the field directors of the three tiger reserves have been asked to instruct the district forest officers concerned to stop allowing tourists till the apex court passes further judgement. Incidentally, the core tiger habitat in Mudumalai, which includes Theppakadu elephant camp, and Anamalai, where Top Slip is, are the core tourist spots thronged by several thousands of tourists every year.

The Supreme Court’s directive banning all tourism activities in core areas of all tiger reserves in the country had an immediate effect in Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks. By early Wednesday morning, many tourists -- confused, angry and disappointed-- left the place.

After the State forest department had on Tuesday decided to stop all tourism activities. For the first time in 40 years, the busy Bandipur tiger reserve as well as Antharasanthe guest house at Nagarhole came to a virtual standstill, following the State forest department deciding on Tuesday to conform with the apex court directive.