Tiger Tourism Ban continues till next hearing on 16th October, 2012

Tiger tourism ban in core areas to stay until next court hearing on Oct 16th. However in all probabilities the parks are opening post the final hearing in October.

The tourism sector in Rajasthan is eagerly waiting for Supreme Court’s hearing on the interim ban on tourism in the core areas of Tiger tourism across the country.  The final verdict would decide whether the travel and tourism companies can do bookings for the already arrived tourism season in the state.

The Supreme Court permitted the Centre to notify within a week its fresh guidelines for tiger conservation and regulating tiger tourism. However, they’ve made it clear that the state governments would be free to challenge the new guidelines if they felt these were against their interest. The Bench said it would consider modification of its July 24 ban on tiger tourism in the core areas of all tiger reserves

The fresh guidelines were aimed at turning wildlife tourism into “ Eco-tourism” with a greater involvement of the local people.

Here are the new guidelines-

• Under the revised guidelines, tourists would have to maintain a minimum distance of more than 20m from all wild animals. For those on vehicles, the distance would be 50m. Further, vehicles would not be allowed to remain at any wildlife sighting point for more than 15 minutes
• The Centre has been told to notify within a week its fresh guidelines for tiger conservation and regulating tiger tourism
• The state governments would be free to challenge the new guidelines if they felt these were against their interest