Jaipur: A month after the Supreme Court banned tourism in core areas of tiger reserves on the basis of Union environment ministry's guidelines, the ministry did an about turn on Tuesday, telling the court that it needed to rethink the guidelines.

The SC order banning tourism in core areas had led to loud protests from states and thriving commercial ventures in and around tiger reserves. In an affidavit, the Centre cited loss of livelihood and a threat to wildlife and forests in the event of a ban on tourism.

Seen Mating After 30 Families Move Out From Mordungri Village

Jaipur: The shifting of a few villages from the periphery of Ranthambore National Park has started showing results. The big cats, which were scrambling for space, have now more space to move around and expand their breeding zones. On Tuesday morning, tigress T-22 was seen mating with tiger T-23 in Bodal beat near Mordungri village. Thirty families from the village moved to Amli, some 35 km away in Tonk district, barely a month back. Originally consisting of about 157 families, the rest had earlier took the offer of cash package of Rs 10 lakh and relocated.

New Delhi: In what could force PM Manmohan Singhto intervene in the raging debate on tiger versus tourism, Valmik Thapar, one of the most prominent tigerwallahs, has demanded that the government’s

More tigers are being introduced in Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan’s Alwar district this monsoon under the recovery plan of the tiger habitat which lost all its big cats to alleged poaching some time in 2004-5. Most of the six tigers reintroduced in the past four years, starting with the first male tiger in June-July 2008, were released during this season.

And if Sariska needs more tigers, where would the Rajasthan authorities look for other than the Ranthambhore National Park, which at present has an actively breeding cat population? All the tigers in Sariska are from Ranthambhore though there is a proposal to get one or two from the forests of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

Jaipur: The recently notified buffer zone for the Sariska tiger reserve seems to have got a better deal. About 250 sq km was added to the CTH of the reserve.
According to sources, “The buffer zone here is a continuous chain of land unlike the fragmented buffer of Ranthambore. However, the buffer area in the north western and southern part of the CTH here is much more than the other parts.”

For creating the buffer zone in Sariska, parts of forest land from the Alwar and Jaipur forest division were included. While areas such as Sirawas, Digani and Bhasra were included from the Alwar forest division, the Digota block of the Jamua Ramgarh sanctuary was included from the Jaipur forest division.

The Reserve Had To Bear The Brunt After NTCA Guidelines Were Implemented To Create A Critical Tiger Habitat

Jaipur: It was a National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guideline way back in 2006 that eventually left the Ranthambore tiger reserve bereft of enough forest area on the periphery that could be declared as a buffer zone after the Supreme Court directives now. Though the state forest department has notified a buffer zone for the Ranthambore tiger reserve after the Supreme Court directives but instead of a continuous, peripheral zone, the buffer in this case is fragmented, isolated pieces of land at various corner of the critical tiger habitat. Sources revealed that soon after the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) act in 2006, the NTCA came up with guidelines for declaring Critical Tiger Habitats (CTH) for reserves across the country.

JAIPUR: The Supreme Court's interim order to ban tourists from core zones of tiger reserves, where the concentration of tigers is particularly high, has dampened the spirit of wildlife lovers across the world. Be that the international media, Facebook, Twitter or blogs these were abuzz with the news.

Though the final verdict is yet to come, travellers across the globe don't want to take any chances. "I have already started receiving cancellations from repeat visitors for next year," said Paul Goldstein, an award-winning wildlife photographer, philanthropist and TV presenter in UK.

JAIPUR: The newly formed Ranthambore Tiger and Tourism Protection Committee has assured that tigers will not be endangered in any way by allowing entry of tourists to the core areas of the Ranthambore National Park (RNP).

Continuing its demand to allow entry to the core areas of RNP, the protection committee went on its agitation for fourth day as well. Earlier forest minister Bina Kak, at a meeting in the city on Sunday, had appreciated the efforts put in by the committee for assuring to represent the feelings and the mood of the tourism-related trade and the local populace of Ranthambore to the Supreme Court.

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?

They want to adopt the model to save jaguars

A team of wildlife experts from Argentina is visiting the Bandipur and Nagarahole tiger reserves to study the conservation methods adopted. The teams will take back lessons from the tiger reserves so that Argentina’s own endangered species, the Jaguar, is reintroduced and protected in that country. Ignacio Simenez, Sofia Heinonen and Valeria Francisco of The Conservation Land Trust (CLT), who are visiting the world’s largest tiger density areas, plan to reintroduce the Jaguar in Argentina’s first naturally protected area, Poa de Corrientes (in the north of the country).