A day after the Supreme Court invited suggestions and objections for framing guidelines for conservation of tigers, Rajasthan on Thursday came up with its own guidelines, the first state to do so.
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The guidelines, have been submitted to the court as an affidavit on Friday, seeks to promote tourism but disperses it over a wider area than just confine to the national park only. It also seeks to promote eco-tourism in lesser known areas, non-forest areas and even on private lands adjoining tiger reserves by developing them into alternative wildlife land use options. Currently tourism in the state has been confined to areas of government ownership and is managed solely by the forest department.
The guidelines make it clear that tourism zones may include core areas, critical tiger habitat, buffer areas and other wildlife rich areas . It also speaks about the park management having the liberty of changing the tourism zone every year on a rotational basis to ensure that no particular zone is over utilized.
The state government also takes the onus of managing tourist traffic and for channelizing it responsibly by taking regular feedback from them. It opts for thinner traffic by discouraging congestion and of conducting tourism impact studies once in three years. But it makes clear of its intentions of allowing tourism in specified areas of national parks.
Rajasthan Eco tourism guidelines can be accessed on following
link- http://www.rajforest.nic.in/
