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Supreme Court lifts ban on tiger tourism
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 16
Tiger tourism will be back to business as the Supreme Court today lifted its July 24 ban that had made the core areas of all the 41 tiger reserves across the country out-of-bounds for tourists.

Tourists will, however, be allowed to visit only 20 per cent of the core areas of each reserve and that too with a lot of restrictions under the revised guidelines notified by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar passed an order throwing open the core areas to tourism activities after being informed by the Centre that it had notified the new guidelines yesterday.

The Bench had imposed the ban on tiger tourism on the recommendations of the Centre for checking the decline in the population of the national animal. It, however, removed the restriction today on a plea by the Central government, which had taken a U-turn on the issue in the face of objections from tour operators, state governments, political parties and the people living in forest areas whose livelihood depended on tiger tourism.

The SC directed the state governments to prepare their respective tiger conservation plan and submit it to NTCA within six months for approval.

The state governments would have to meet all the requirements mentioned in the guidelines before allowing recommencement of tourism activities, the Bench clarified in the order. Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh had, however, maintained during arguments today that tiger tourism could re-commence immediately in the wake of the issue of the notification.

Under the revised guidelines, there would be restrictions on the tourists both in terms of distance and duration for sighting the tiger in the core areas of tiger reserves. Visitors would have to keep a minimum distance of more than 20 metres from all wildlife and for those on vehicles the restriction is 50 metres. Vehicles would not be allowed to remain at any wildlife sighting point for more than 15 minutes.

In today’s order, the SC made it clear that all those aggrieved by the revised guidelines, including the state governments, could challenge the notification before any appropriate forum.

Kerala and Madhya Pradesh are opposed to the restrictions as some temples are located in the core areas of tiger sanctuaries. Kerala said it would have to restrict the number of devotees visiting Sabarimala under the new guidelines.

Revised guidelines

There would be restrictions on the tourists both in terms of distance and duration for sighting the tiger.

Visitors would have to keep a minimum distance of more than 20 metres from all wildlife

For those on vehicles the restriction will be 50 metres.

No vehicle would be allowed to remain at any wildlife sighting point for more than 15 minutes.