Despite IFS officer Surender Mehra's tweet of a video captioned, "'Tiger sighting' is nothing but intrusion in their Life", Wildlife activists, scientists and officials feel wildlife tourism must not be banned, but carried on with better management.
Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Surender Mehra on Sunday tweeted a video showing a group of people aboard an open safari roared at by a wild angry tiger. The big cat, in its natural habitat, looked quite offended at the intrusion, and kept growling and charging at them.
The tourists aboard an open jeep spotted a tiger hiding behind bushes. While they started taking pictures to capture its movement up close, the angry cat charged at the safari with a loud roar. Having the presence of mind, the jeep driver hurriedly maneuvered the vehicle forward, while the tiger, without hurting anyone, turned around and retreated into the jungle.
IFS officer Surender Mehra shared the video on Twitter, with the caption, "sometimes, our 'too much' eagerness for 'Tiger sighting' is nothing but intrusion in their Life".
Netizens responded to the tweet, by blaming tourists for their "constant jabbering". One user said: "Their noises make wild animals uncomfortable... these sorts of people should be banned from entering the forest." Another user said: "True, forest dept should regulate the number of tourists visiting the core area with clear instructions to guides to stop recklessly following the tiger.”
A similar case had occured in January 2021, when a tiger scared a group of tourists that had ventured too close to the big cat to click pictures.
In 2019, stress hormones from tiger scat samples in Bandhavgarh and Kanha Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh revealed that big cats are highly stressed during the tourist season compared with the non-tourism period in both reserves. In a previous study by the authors, published in 2015, showed that tigers introduced in Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan failed to reproduce, probably due to stress elicited by human disturbances. over-expression of the stress biomarker Cortisol can have life-long significant negative impact on all aspects of wildlife ecology including growth and development, maturation, reproductive fitness, behaviour and survival. The Supreme Court in 2012 extended the ban on tourists in core zones of India’s tiger reserves to prevent misuse wildlife tourism.
Despite the above research findings, wildlife activists, scientists and officials feel wildlife tourism must not be banned, but carried on with better management. For instance, wildlife reserves must be discouraged from turning into venues for marriage celebrations and parties, where there are no norms on lighting, and noise.
To help netizens understand how they must conduct themselves at a safari, another Indian Forest Services officer Susanta Nanda, in June 2022, shared a small clip that showed how ethical wildlife tourism should be.
In the video, a tigress and her cubs are crossing a mud trail as tourist jeeps watch them from a distance. There is absolute silence in the video and the animals seem unbothered by the human presence. It appears that the 36-second video was shot by a person from one of the jeeps.
While sharing the video, Nanda wrote, “This is what tiger tourism should be. Maintaining safe distance and treating the queen & its cub with respect”.
The experts feel it’s in the long term interest of India’s tigers that wildlife tourism must be permitted. Wildlife Institute of India’s Qamar Qureshi, a senior scientist involved in numerous tiger projects had said: “Wildlife tourism is a very important tool for conservation. “By placing a ban on tourism, we would be robbing an entire generation of that experience and a chance to take up conservation as a profession.” Tourism helps protect the tigers, as the public become eyes and ears for a reserve, and also provides livelihood for various people from drivers to guides.