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With the Supreme Court lifting the ban on tourism in core areas of Tiger Reserves that it had imposed in July, lodge operators said they have got the much needed respite, but were awaiting notification of guidelines by States that is expected to come in within the next six months.
Amit Sankhala, who is a trustee of Tiger Trust and runs the Kanha Jungle Lodge in Madhya Pradesh, said, “It will take a while before Tiger Tourism is revived. While foreign footfalls are not likely to start coming in before January, with the festive season, lodge owners are likely to try and woo the domestic tourists. Travelling for safaris requires advance planning since it is usually part of the itineraries and the industry received large amount of cancellations because of the ban.”
He added that the industry will require further clarifications on guidelines notified by States as well cess that will be charged.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority had notified fresh guidelines on Monday on Tiger conservation and said no new tourism infrastructure should be permitted in core and critical tiger habitats but allowed low impact tourism in areas subject to site specific carrying capacity.
Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) in a statement said that the Supreme Court judgement is good news, with the present ban being lifted on wildlife tourism. But they felt only time will tell whether this ban and its new guidelines will help solve the issues created by the boom in nature tourism.
Vishal Singh, Director TOFT India, said, “The ban has badly affected hundreds of thousands of local livelihoods, and legitimate businesses, both directly and indirectly. It’s now time to get back to work, to ensure that revenues that flow through park fees back into conservation and communities start flowing in again, that livelihoods are restored, and legitimate businesses are allowed to continue to show India’s very best natural heritage to its citizens.”
TOFT also said that it hoped that the ban and the debate have helped all stakeholders to work together.
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