Uttarakhand’s ambitious tiger safari, proposed in the buffer zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve, inched towards reality with the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under the Union Environment Ministry giving its nod to the project that aims at boosting the tourism revenue as well as providing home to the injured and old wild animals in the big cat habitat.
“We have been informed that the proposal has been cleared by the FAC in a recent meeting. But we are yet to get the minutes of the meeting,” Rahul, Field Director of the CTR, said adding that the safari will come up in the area sprawling over 106.16 hectares in the buffer area of the CTR.
He said that the Rs 25-crore project envisages construction of five enclosures with each having 35 hectares area for two males and three female big cats. The safari will ease tourism pressure on the CTR which is visited by over 3 lakh tourists every year.
“Since tiger sighting at the safari will be 100 percent, it will mostly cater to the tourists who just want to see tigers and are not interested in enjoying other wildlife. Diverting such tourists to safaris will lessen the burden on the CTR and hence the wildlife,” explained Rahul. CTR has over 231 big cats as per the latest census.
Besides ex-situ conservation, the safari will also have an off-exhibit rehabilitation centre for the rescued animals or those injured in infighting and in human-animal conflicts in the CTR, said the Field Director.
The purpose is to divert tourism from the famous Dhikala zone and other adjoining areas of Bijrani, Jhirna and Sona Nadi to the Dhela range in the State.
The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) have already given in- principle approval to the project.
When contacted, NTCA Chief SP Yadav said that the authority will fund the safari which will have to follow the design approved by the CZA. The NTCA guidelines issued in 2016 allows setting up of tiger safaris in buffer and fringe areas of tiger reserves, aiming to reduce tourist pressure on the key areas of these reserves.
As per the guidelines 70 per cent of earnings from safaris will be ploughed back into tiger reserves while 30 per cent will go into the management of such safaris.
Such safaris are allowed for only those reserves that have achieved full carrying capacity of the tourists in core and critical areas.
The guidelines also clearly states that for such safaris, “no tiger shall be obtained from a zoo” and only animals such as injured and orphaned tiger cubs (which are unfit for re-wilding) would be selected and that too from the same landscapes as that of the area where the tiger safari is being established.