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A sympathetic government policy is required that promotes and encourages sustainable wildlife tourism over a larger landscape. By spreading the area
of wildlife tourism, not only would more communities benefi t, but also the pressure on existing reserves could be reduced.over the long term – the extinctions
in Sariska and Panna are examples
of this. More and larger exclusionary
conservation areas are no longer
feasible but we can build on what we
have, and can extend our areas of
conservation, with diff erent paradigms.
The success of the PA system can be
complemented with parallel models.
Figures from the latest study
show that eco-tourism could provide
one way to do this. It could be the
means for forests beyond the PA
boundaries to be brought into the
conservation fold, boosting the
viability of small tiger reserves by
providing additional protected tiger
breeding areas, while also providing
stepping stones of safety in corridors
from one PA to another. By spreading
the area of wildlife tourism, not
only would more communities
benefi t, but also the pressure on
existing reserves could be reduced.
Furthermore, these non-PA areas
would off er visitors more diverse
wildlife experiences and cater to
the diff erent interests and individual
preferences of travellers in ways
that the present jeep-safari-only
model cannot.When well-managed, tourism, unlike
most industries, can create a thriving
economy that is not dependent on
the one-time consumption of natural
resources: one where the local community
can become active partners both in
tourism and in nature conservation. The
next step is to persuade the government
of this possibility! For the model to be
eff ective, a sympathetic government
policy is required that promotes and
encourages sustainable wildlife tourism
over a larger landscape.
After three decades of involvement
in wildlife conservation, we entered the
tourism fi eld as a self-sustaining way
to continue such work in the Panna
area. This is a rural area where much of
the population’s livelihood comes from
agriculture and/or unskilled labour. In
a small way I have seen the changes a
few well-managed lodges can bring such
areas when run on eco-tourism principles.
If this were possible to do in strategic
‘stepping stone’ locations covering larger,
tiger-territory-sized areas, it could also
directly contribute to broadening the
tiger conservation landscape.
Enhanced sustainable rural
livelihoods and wildlife conservation too- what could be better than that? t
areas, at least, this is happening
without too much major long-term
damage. Satellite images show
negligible change in the forest cover
from 2003-04 when the upsurge
in hotels around the PAs began.
When resort locations are plotted on
the satellite images, it can be seen
that almost all are clustered around
already inhabited spots and hence
create minimal extra disturbance to
tiger movement.
TOURISM AS A TOOL
Many of the reserves, given their
restricted entrance capacity, have
reached tourist saturation point.
Besides, the reserves that truly attract
visitors are few in number. If tourism
can be extended, this would spread the
benefi t – both for conservation and
for the remote rural communities. The
exciting aspect of this study is that it
shows that it can be done and could be
self-sustaining through tourism.
Raghu Chundawat’s tiger ecology
study in Panna identifi ed a scale
mis-match for tigers and this is not
unique in our PA system. Many
tiger reserves are too small to protect
a viable population of the big cat
BHARGAVA SRIVARI/ENTRY-SANCTUARY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2017