BENGALURU: While Minister of Forests and Environment Eshwar Khandre on Saturday issued order for restart of jungle safaris in Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves which were banned from November 7 previous year, wildlife activists and farmers leaders question the Minister pointing to “When night traffic in Bandipur and Nagarahole came be successfully implemented to bring down road kill of wild animals, why can’t jungle safaris be banned to save human lives on the periphery of the two tiger reserves?”
Bandipur Tiger Reserves spreads across Mysuru and Chamarajanagr and Nagarahole in Mysuru and Kodagu districts.
The Minister banned jungle safaris after tigers strayed out of Bandipur Tiger Reserve to kill villagers while one of them was left seriously injured in 2025. However, now to reopen jungle safaris, the Minister stated there is no scientific backing to support the claims that jungle safaris disturbed wild animals especially tigers/leopards and elephants to cause man-animal conflict.
Questioning the rationale of the Minister, a wildlife activist told Deccan Chronicle on Saturday prior to the ban on night traffic that from 2004 to 2008, Bandipur accounted for 91 road kills including a tiger, an elephant, two leopards among others. But the road kills on Bandipur roads-one linking to Ooty in Tamil Nadu and another to Wayanad in Kerala came down after night traffic ban came into effect.
As per the data collected by the activist, road kills of wildlife in Bandipur Tiger Reserve from February, 2009 to January 8, 2018 after ban on night traffic came into effect, the reserve recorded 34 wild animal deaths.
Opposing the safari reopening, a farmers’ leader Honnur Prakash said tiger attacks were less before 2025 but the previous recorded tiger attack cases more which led to 3 human killings and one serious attack. Prakash said farmers would continue to oppose reopening jungle safaris and a meeting has been called on Monday to chalk out a future course of action.
Supporting jungle safaris, president and Chief Executive Officer of Wild Conservation Trust Dr Anish Andheria stated “Vehicle bound jungle safaris have operated across most India tiger reserves for more than three decades with no scientific evidence linking regulated, vehicle-based tourism to increased human-tiger conflict.”
The CEO, also a conservationist, observed “As tiger populations grow, they disperse across large landscapes in search of territory, often moving through small forest landscapes and corridors until they find habitats with adequate prey, perennial source of water and mating opportunities.”
While wildlife conservationist Julian Matthews stated “Wildlife conflict is a consequence of the success of conservation efforts.” Continuing, he said, wildlife conflict is a forest department’s management issue and not an ecotourism one.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
