Christmas holiday has been a headache for the forest officials of the Bhitarkanika national park as hundreds of tourists, including many VIPs, are thronging the pristine mangrove forest for which they have to remain busy in showing hospitality leading to lapses in patrolling work.
The tourists are visiting the park’s eco-systems to watch wild animals like salt-water crocodiles, spotted deer, wild-boars, migratory and local birds, water monitors and other animals. “The worry lies with spending maximum time by the park officials to treat the VIPs. We are now busy to treat senior Government officials and their relatives coming to the park. As a result, we fail to pay much attention to forest protection and related works,” stated a forest officer requesting anonymity.
“If a VIP visits to Bhitarkanika, then the forest personnel have to remain with him to assist him to visit to the core areas and arrange boat and food stuff. This is done to ensure a pleasant trip for the VIP. But this hinders the forest protection and other works as paying hospitality takes precedence over maintaining protection in the forest,” said a forester, who did not want to be identified.
Generally, during the peak tourist season, the poachers trespass inside the park and its nearby areas taking advantage of the lapses in security in the park. They cash in on the opportunity to trap wild animals and migratory birds. The peak tourist season starts from December third week to January second week. The locals, who are residing in the fringes of Bhitarkanika, also kill the wild-boars as the animals make extensive damage to the standing paddy and other crops in several villages.
Man-animal conflict generally occurs mostly during the harvesting season, which is also a favourable time for the tourists to visit Bhitarkanika. According to Kanika ranger Akhay Kumar Nayak, as many as 3,492 Indian tourists and 54 foreigners visited Bhitarkanika in last five days.