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No plan to ban tourism in tiger reserves

Countering claims from the tourism lobby, the environment ministry clarified that there was no proposal to ban tourism in tiger reserves but warned that tourism would be strictly regulated in the tiger parks.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, "The ministry of environment and forests believes that tourism is essential and that revenue from tourism must flow back directly into the management of each of the tiger reserves so that local communities can benefit."

But reiterating the long-standing criticism of the way tourism has operated in the tiger havens of India, Ramesh added, "The advantages of tourism should be felt by these local communities who should be encouraged to develop a stake in the protection of these tiger reserves. This policy of ploughing back is already in place in most reserves and it will be in place in all `Project Tiger' reserves very soon."

The tourism lobby has been opposing any move to charge or tax hotels and operations in vicinity of tiger parks to help provide local livelihoods and opportunities to the poor impacted by creation of the reserves besides being used for the upkeep of the tiger habitat. A recommendation to the effect by the Tiger Task Force has been long pending with the tourism and environment ministries locked in a turf battle.

The environment ministry and the National Tiger Conservation Authority are also hard pressed to tackle the political fallout of allowing high revenue tourism in the core of tiger reserves while tribals and forest dwellers have been asked to relocate.

The PM had written to several chief ministers recently asking for regulation of unfettered tourism on the periphery of tiger reserves such as the high profile Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand.