Sanctuary Asia — January 2018

Sanctuary | Report

A few years ago, I attended

a book launch in the capital where

three of India’s best-known tiger

experts spoke about the tiger and

how tourism could and did benefi t its

conservation. However, when discussion

was opened to the fl oor for comments

and questions, it was as though none

of them had spoken. Journalists, tiger

lovers and the author’s friends, almost

all seemed united in their antipathy

towards wildlife tourism. It was an

echo of the events of 2012 when the

By Joanna Van Gruisen

Supreme Court closed tiger reserves

for tourism for a period and much was

written in the press about the negative

impacts of tourism.

This has always made me wonder.

Elsewhere in the world, tourism is

viewed as an important conservation

tool, but in India, the prevailing attitude

seems to be that it is a disaster for

wildlife; that it is an industry that

creates damage and is exploitative of

the natural resources that attract the

visitor. The “costs are heavy and the

gains limited” is a predominant view.

Resorts are accused of blocking tiger

corridors, depleting forests and being a

serious “threat” to wildlife. Furthermore,

it is often written that the hotels’

contribution to local communities is

meagre and many call for enforcing

a conservation fee, even cess, on the

hospitality industry around Protected

Areas claiming that they are making

their “profi t on a resource managed by

taxpayers’ money” (as though this was

unique to wildlife tourism!).

TAPAN JASANI/ENTRY-SANCTUARY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2017

Tourism’s Potential for Conservation