The Supreme Court in July, in reply to a petition filed by
the Central government, imposed a ban on tourism in the tiger conservation
areas. But what it seems to have completely ignored is that tiger tourism is a 10
billion rupees industry in India. The Centre soon realized this error and also the fact that many states opposed the
ban, saying that it would create a lot of unemployment and since then it has
been trying to seek a review on the petition. Although this saw the Apex court
being critical of the Centre’s petition as to on what basis did it seek the ban
in the first place.
All this is what has happened in the last six months, from
trying to ban the tourism as a whole to imposing a restriction of 20% on it but
the final result is still to come. While all this has been happening, what
seems to be missing is the core issue, the conservation of tigers and no one seems
to care about, because had it been the scenario people would have realized that
the tiger population has actually risen, from 1400 in 2006 to more than 1700
today and all thanks to the funds that the forest department generates from
tourism. The Centre while seeking the ban to preserve this royal animal seems
to have forgotten that people need to be made aware of what they are trying to protect, for if they
don’t know what they are protecting they actually might not protect it. The ban
on tourism seems to have not gone down well with the various states and thus
they have opposed it leading the Centre to reconsider its petition.
The Supreme
Court, which is yet to give its final decision on the subject should consider
the various aspects and the appeals of the various NGOs and societies working
for the revival of the tiger population before it bans the tourism altogether.
The ban might just help in the extinction of the royal animal from the minds of
the people and the nation and reduce it to just being a chapter in the
children’s books.
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