The Union government on Wednesday pleaded in the Supreme Court for a partial lifting of the ban on tourist activities in core areas of tiger reserve forests. It sought permission to have 20 per cent of the area under tourism.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment and Forests said this in its fresh Comprehensive Guidelines on Strategy, Tiger Conservation and Tourism in and around Tiger Reserves.

SC ban hasn’t affected conservation

The theory that a ban on tiger tourism will affect the conservation of the critically endangered big cat was rubbished by the State Forest department, which claimed that it was able to initiate protective measures without funds from tourism. The Supreme Court’s interim order to ban tiger tourism in the last week of July created a flutter. Several wildlife enthusiasts and resort owners predicted almost “the beginning of the end of tiger conservation” in the country. Many of them claimed they supported conservation by sharing their revenue which will add to funds for conservation.

A long delay in the relocation process of forest dwellers and tribals living in 30 villages, including Mudhuguli village, located inside Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris, will cost the

THE CENTRE has finally asked the bustard range states to prepare species recovery action plans for the three critically endangered birds following its guidelines.

The Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve are inextricably linked with “Project Tiger” in the country and have placed Uttarakhand on the world wildlife tourism map forever.

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?

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.

While wildlife activists have generally welcomed the Supreme Court Order banning wildlife tourism in core areas, the Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) has called the decision a “fundamentally retr

States to notify core, buffer areas

In order to give “inviolate space” to tigers for their undisturbed breeding, the Supreme Court on Tuesday banned all forms of tourism in national tiger reserves with immediate effect, warning states it would take strict action, including imposing fines, if this order was not implemented in letter and spirit.

A bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla passed an interim ban order on a note placed on record by amicus curiae Raj Panjwani highlighting how the “inviolate space” of 800-1,200 sq km recommended by the Wildlife Institute of India and National Board of Wildlife for peaceful breeding by a group of 20 tigress and survival of young cubs was disturbed due to tourism in tiger reserves.