Big cat was a tourist puller at Tadoba this summer

NAGPUR: Notwithstanding the scorching summer heat, wild life lovers and tourists made a beeline this summer at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur breaching previous highs of daily gate entries.

The TATR field office recorded a phenomenal 40% rise in the tourist-flow at Tadoba in 2009-10 over the previous year, with more than a lakh visitors generating a revenue of Rs26.86 lakh on account of the entry fee. What's more, officials say, even in a particularly warm summer, the number of tourists flooding TATR actually shot up in April and May, all because of the certainty in
sighting of tigers this time around.

More than 30,000 tourists flooded Tadoba in April and May 2010 at an average 578 tourists entering the reserve every day in more than 80 vehicles. The 2008-09 fiscal saw 68,183 tourists enter TATR, while the 2009-10-season drew in 103,693 tourists, almost a three-fold rise as compared to 2002-03-season when only 30,951 tourists came to the pristine forests of Tadoba, according to the TATR field office data.

Officials say the TATR is becoming popular across the country now. The private and government-run resorts around Tadoba also did a brisk business this season, they said.

“Because of easy sightings of tigers, tourist flow increased this year,” Sanjay Thakare, the TATR field director said. “Liberal publicity in the media too helped fuel the tourist interest and curiosity.”

The summer followed one of the worst meteorological droughts this year, and the wild animals in the Tadoba forests were mainly dependent on the man-made water holes, officials said.

The increased tourist flow came with some obvious problems though. Tourists, say forest officials, are not sufficiently educated in the dos and don’ts of forest tourism. “They forget that it’s not recreational; you are actually disturbing the wild life if you create a ruckus and noise in their territory,” Thakare said.

There were incidents when officials had to fine and warn some tourists to behave inside Tadoba.

Top forest officials and wild life conservationists in Chandrapur are of the view that there should be restrictions in the tourist movement in the TATR, which remains one of the important tiger conservation foci of the authorities. For some reasons, unlike other national parks and sanctuaries that remain closed for tourists during monsoon, the TATR is kept open for tourists during the four rainy months.

“Tourism for us is a secondary issue,” an official said. “Our priority is conservation but people forget that and instead complain that we stop them from going in. But if we don’t conservation efforts will suffer.”

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_big-cat-was-a-tourist-puller-at-tadoba-this-summer_1399872

Now, solar lamps near tiger reserve

PATNA: Residents of Khairahni and Majuraha villages located near Harnatar range of Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve are set to enjoy brighter evenings. Courtesy, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), these villagers would soon have access to solar lanterns which they can hire at nominal rates.

TERI under its ‘Lighting a billion lives’ has decided to set up solar charging points in the said villages with each point to have 60 solar lanterns which villagers could hire.

One from among villagers would be given the responsibility of running the charging points which would also provide facility for mobile charging. While part of the income from these points would be used for maintenance work, the remaining work would be given to the person who would run these charging points, TERI research associate Jarnail Singh, who is looking after the project being implemented in many tiger reserves across the country, told TOI over phone on Tuesday.

TERI has entered into agreement with different organisations working in these tiger reserves, for implementing the project, and in case of Valmiki, it has roped in services of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) for implementing the project.

“This project is going to be very helpful in reducing incidents of man-animal conflict as the bright light of solar lanterns, which would be used by the villagers, would work as deterrent for wild animals as these animals avoid coming close to bright light,” WTI assistant manager Samir Kumar Sinha said.

He said provision of light during evening hours would also allow villagers to use their evening hours in productive work, which in turn, would help reduce their dependence on forest.

TERI also plans to use this project as a means of awareness generation for conserving flora and fauna among residents living in and around tiger reserves. Those manning the solar charging points, who would be called ‘Prakash Dut’, would be trained for this purpose, Singh said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Now-solar-lamps-near-tiger-reserve/articleshow/6080571.cms