[FEL-L] New Delhi - Experts say tiger tourism revenue must help locals

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<ARTTITLE>Experts say tiger tourism revenue must h
 
8 Jul, 2007 l 0130 hrs ISTlNitin Sethi/TNN

NEW DELHI: Field directors of 27 of the 28 tiger reserves and eight proposed 
tiger reserves have demanded that a part of the revenue generated from tourism 
activities — hotels, lodges and tour operators depending on tiger reserves — 
be ploughed back to the local villages, especially villages relocated from 
such reserves. 

This and other recommendations came out of a two-day meeting of field 
directors with the national tiger conservation authority (NTCA) and other officials 
of the environment ministry. The meeting drew up an agenda that will be 
discussed by the National Board of Wildlife — the apex body on wildlife conservation 
headed by the prime minister — at the end of the month. 

Drafting an agenda for the tiger reserves, endorsed by the two ministers of 
state present at the meeting, the officials have also suggested that special 
committees be set up to address the situation in the naxal-impacted tiger 
reserves of Simlipal in Orrisa, Indravati in Chhattisgarh and Palamau in Jharkhand. 
The committees will comprise two well-known and accepted leaders of the area, 
a local NGO of repute, a sociologist and the deputy director of the tiger 
reserve. The committee will facilitate dialogue with the operating groups in the 
region to save the situation. 

Directors of the tiger reserves have also suggested that besides increasing 
incentives to the field staff, the government should also look at a 
rehabilitation package for traditional hunting communities in the vicinity of the parks 
and sanctuaries. 

To make up for the lack of staff strength to undertake protection measures, 
the directors, along with the NTCA, have suggested hiring ex-servicemen and 
villagers from habitations around the parks. 

The officials have also recommended a time-frame of two years to demarcate 
inviolate spaces for the tiger (with no human habitation) and to settle rights 
of those displaced in the process. 

While these ideas had been earlier suggested in the PM's Tiger Task Force 
report, this is the first time senior forest officials have endorsed and moved 
these as firm action points. 

The move comes at a point when the NTCA is on schedule to get greater 
independence from the mother ministry. The ministry is finalising the creation of an 
administrative and technical committee to support the working of the 
authority. Once cleared, tiger authority officials will not need to go through the 
ministry for clearances and daily functioning and will work along the lines of the 
Central Zoo Authority. 

_nitin.sethi at timesgroup.com_ (mailto:nitin.sethi at timesgroup.com)  
 
_http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Experts_say_tiger_tourism_revenue_mu
st_help_locals/rssarticleshow/2185311.cms_ 
(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Experts_say_tiger_tourism_revenue_must_help_locals/rssarticleshow/21853
11.cms) 



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