Team-BHP > Shifting gears


Reply
  Search this Thread
9,009 views
Old 24th July 2012, 13:09   #1
BHPian
 
gauravdgr8's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: CG/CH
Posts: 776
Thanked: 1,287 Times
Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

Quote:
  • Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that there shall be no tourism activity in any of the core zones of tiger reserves across the country.
  • The apex court also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 each on Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra and Jharkhand for not complying with its directions.
  • Under Section 38(b) and Explanation 1 and 2 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the states have to notify the list of core and buffer areas of tiger reserves undertheir respective jurisdiction.
  • Under the Act, buffer zones are the areas peripheral to the critical tiger habitats or core areas providing supplementary habitats for dispersing tigers and offering scope for co-existence of human activity. The buffer zones constitute the fringe areas of tiger reserves up to a distance of 10 kms.
  • It has been alleged in the PIL that in violation of the conservation norms, authorities in various states had permitted large-scale construction of hotels, resorts and tourism projects, thereby gravely disturbing wildlife activities.
In a way it is a good step if implemented as it would surely help in extending the life of the Indian Tiger before it is finally extinct.

Source:No tourism in core areas of tiger reserves: Supreme Court - The Times of India

Last edited by .anshuman : 24th July 2012 at 13:44. Reason: Info from TOI website put into quote + removed wrong info and added exact words. Credit to source added. Thanks
gauravdgr8 is offline  
Old 24th July 2012, 14:45   #2
BHPian
 
ExtremeTorque's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 379
Thanked: 20 Times
Re: Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

While I think this is a good move by the SC, I wonder how the upkeep of the parks will be, after this is implemented.

AFAIK, revenue generated from wildlife tourism is used extensively for the maintanance of these sanctuaries.

I have see first hand (atleast the parks in MP) the state govts efforts to keep these forests safe - both from natural as well as man-made threats. Thousands are being employed to prepare for the harsh summers (creating firelines, filling up the watering holes etc), incessent rains (clear excess waters, building bunds to prevent flooding etc), manning the buffer as well as the core zones to prevent poachers & indescriminate grazing, fencing etc..

With this ruling, I just wonder, will there be any visitors who would be interested to see only the buffer areas...
ExtremeTorque is offline  
Old 24th July 2012, 14:46   #3
BANNED
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Gurugram
Posts: 7,969
Thanked: 4,786 Times
Re: Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

I thought the core areas were always out of bounds. What was the need for this repetition. Presumably too many of the high and mighty and moneybags were getting in there.
sgiitk is offline  
Old 24th July 2012, 15:06   #4
Senior - BHPian
 
mallumowgli's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Palakkad/Coimbatore
Posts: 1,226
Thanked: 1,079 Times
Re: Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

Yes, tourism was out of bounds in core areas wherever the same were notified. Only a handful of the big states have notified core areas or rather the only states I know are Kerala and Karnataka. Sunderbans also has a core area and buffer area. Big Tiger states like MP and Maharashtra are yet to notify the core areas, whereas in Tamilnadu there is hardly any kind of wildlife protection in place, let alone a notification of core areas. The forest bordering Karnataka in TN are still called as cattle grazing grounds officially!!

The Supreme court verdict is valid till the time the states comply with the SC directive to notify the core areas and buffer zones. After which the SC, based on the report from MOEF, will give the final decision

But my humble opinion is that the ban on tourism is not going to affect conservation positively or negatively. 90% of tourists coming to wildlife sanctuary do not know the difference between core and buffer areas. Hence the tourist flow will not get affected much. But the poachers will have an undisturbed access to core areas, where the patrolling and general management by the forest department is lax.

In Kerala and Karnataka the general opinion is that the notification has helped in maintaining the sanctity of the core area. But the flip side is that the buffer area has come under increased threat, because the rules are not very clear about what sort of activities can be allowed here.
mallumowgli is offline  
Old 24th July 2012, 15:09   #5
BHPian
 
ExtremeTorque's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 379
Thanked: 20 Times
Re: Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

sgiitk - not really, the core area's themselves are furthere demarkated by the forest department - area's that can be accessed by the tourists & completly out of bound area's.

While the SC ruling is definitly a respite to the wildlife, the concern now is that will the state govts strive in a similar way to maintain the forests, especially with the funds from tourism dwindling after implementation. Further, the livlihood of personnel (read safari drivers, guides) is also at stake.
ExtremeTorque is offline  
Old 24th July 2012, 16:05   #6
Team-BHP Support
 
tsk1979's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 23,717
Thanked: 22,769 Times
Re: Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country

Quote:
Originally Posted by gauravdgr8 View Post
In a way it is a good step if implemented as it would surely help in extending the life of the Indian Tiger before it is finally extinct.

Source:No tourism in core areas of tiger reserves: Supreme Court - The Times of India
Not it will not extend the life of the tiger in any way. It will make it only shorter. Maximum amount of poaching happens when parks close for monsoon season. Now poaching can happen all year around. More tourists, more forest officials, less chance of poachers being active.
Infact many tiger reserves have seen rise in tiger numbers, and poaching has been controlled, as local people get more profit from supporting tourism.
I am not too sure why somebody filed a PIL. He should be investigated for true motives.
tsk1979 is offline  
Old 29th July 2012, 21:35   #7
BHPian
 
ananth_iy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Coimbatore
Posts: 244
Thanked: 22 Times
Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

I have been reading several news articles like the one below on road closures after the judgement - Top Slip closed, Valaparai road closed, Mudumalai via Bandipur closed etc. Does anyone have authentic information of these closures and how it will impact plans to any of these areas - Bandipur, Mudumalai, Parambikulam, Valparai?

Curtains down in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Anamalai in Tamil Nadu | Halo Backwaters
ananth_iy is offline  
Old 29th July 2012, 22:27   #8
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NH209
Posts: 1,775
Thanked: 1,462 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

One of my friend told that checking at Monkey falls checkpost to Valparai has increased manifold.
ramzsys is offline  
Old 29th July 2012, 22:57   #9
Senior - BHPian
 
starter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,127
Thanked: 902 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

I am just back from Bhadra. No tiger safaris happening at Jungle Lodges.
They did however continued with their boat safaris but no Jeep Safaris happening.
Am glad this ruling is being taken seriously.
Cheers,
Deepak
starter is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 11:54   #10
BHPian
 
Driving_Nomad's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Bengaluru
Posts: 206
Thanked: 362 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ananth_iy View Post
I have been reading several news articles like the one below on road closures after the judgement - Top Slip closed, Valaparai road closed, Mudumalai via Bandipur closed etc. Does anyone have authentic information of these closures and how it will impact plans to any of these areas - Bandipur, Mudumalai, Parambikulam, Valparai?

Curtains down in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Anamalai in Tamil Nadu | Halo Backwaters
Mudumalai and Bandipur - yes. Anamalai, Tamil Nadu - A big NO.

I travelled to Munnar on the 20th July and went through Anamalai Tiger reserve and Chinar wildlife sanctuary. We left mysore around 6PM in the evening and reached the Anamalai forest check post at 3AM in the morning. The guard at the check post was totally drunk and dozing. Even while dozing, he asked for twenty bucks and let us freely go past the forest into Kerala. I will write a short travelogue about this trip later.
Driving_Nomad is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 12:00   #11
Senior - BHPian
 
srishiva's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Bengaluru
Posts: 4,375
Thanked: 2,256 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

I thought only Safaris are banned. Would that include stopping traffic going through the reserves on proper roads?
srishiva is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 12:04   #12
Senior - BHPian
 
gd1418's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Gurgaon
Posts: 3,578
Thanked: 728 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

This is a different stand taken by the Rajasthan's State Forest Minister:

Supreme Court bans tourism in core areas of Tiger reserves across the country-kak.jpg
gd1418 is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 12:12   #13
Senior - BHPian
 
Jignesh's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Near Frankfurt
Posts: 1,609
Thanked: 965 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

Nepal records increase in tiger population
Full Article here: Nepal records increase in tiger population - The Times of India

The latest tiger count made public by WWF Nepal shows an increase of 21 tigers since 2010, an increase of 15 per cent.
Since 2008, the number of tigers more than doubled to 37 -- 15 male and 22 female -- in Bardiya National Park, where only 18 tigers were found in 2008.

Hope Indian authorities learn some lesson from Nepal.

Thanks,
Jignesh is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 12:24   #14
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NH209
Posts: 1,775
Thanked: 1,462 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Driving_Nomad View Post
I travelled to Munnar on the 20th July and went through Anamalai Tiger reserve and Chinar wildlife sanctuary. .
The order came to effect from 24th july.
ramzsys is offline  
Old 30th July 2012, 13:00   #15
Team-BHP Support
 
Samurai's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bangalore/Udupi
Posts: 25,809
Thanked: 45,333 Times
Re: Impact on Supreme Court ruling on Core Area of Project Tiger?

Two weeks back when I was driving to Wayanad, just 10kms after Gundupet I found a car coming at me, with the driver waving wildly at me. Upon inquiry, he told me that 4 tigers passed across their car. So they turned around and followed me for a second look.

We didn't see anything. Looking at our incredulous look, they passed their camera through the window and there it was, tigers passing the road. I hope they don't close this road too.
Samurai is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks