Green chat: Will tiger tourism help conservation?

PROJECT TIGER TOURISM: Some experts are touting wildlife tourism as a viable method for wildlife conservation.

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Keywords: Citizen , Green Chat

Satyam: What can I do, as a tourist, not to spoil a national reserve or forest?

Abhishek Behl: Have a good wildlife experience where you involve all species in your viewing. Enjoy the wild and please make sure to interact with the local guides/staff in hotels and teach him/her as well as learn back from them. That’s a massive contribution.

Clarence Lobo: Dear Abhishek, congratulations on your achievements. I have just brushed through this chat but would like to add my two bits to it. Firstly, thank you for doing what you are doing and wish you all the success and support in the future. Killing tigers and any wildlife should be put to the end, period. Check on encroachment by human population should be check. If tiger tourism will help in achieving this then it is good. Will the funds generated by this go directly in the aid of tigers and the forest? I feel you should have a very good marketing strategy and hire a PR firm or have one in-house to achieve your goals. You need to have a website showing your goals and achievements. Everything needs to be crystal clear, how can lay people like us offer help, there are many that do but don’t know exactly how. I am the grandson of an ex-DFO of south India and want to do my bit to help in whatever way I can.

Abhishek Behl: Thanks for your encouragement, Clarence. We have a website www.toftigers.org . Marketing strategy and PR firms are for corporates, not for TOFT. We need to be in the field and that's where our programs matter. Awareness, yes, is a massive factor and by you participating in this chat and raising questions and suggestions has contributed to many reading.

Pankaj: Hi Abhishek, is it possible to integrate our major tigers reserves with each other through forest corridors? I feel this would help in long-term survival of tigers and other species. What is your take on this?

Abhishek Behl: Absolutely, Pankaj. That’s the only way of survival for many animals. Keeping in mind a Kanha tiger was spotted in Pench some months back. That’s what is great about having corridors.

Sho: Hi Abhishek, I am an animal lover. I am visiting India in mid-Feb. Can you recommend a good tiger reserve that I can visit? Ages ago I have been Kanha (MP) and Nagzira (Maharashtra). Any recommendations?

Abhishek Behl: Please visit www.toftigers.org

Rituparna Mohanty: Tourism can't save the Indian tiger alone. Is there some other way that we can take up to save the about to extinct national treasure?

Abhishek Behl: We still have tourism and that's at least one thing we have. Afforestation is another process which we would be getting into in the future.

Bharat Tandon: The tiger is the ultimate reflection of our national identity, be it eco-tourism or any other innovative methods, the time has come to go out of the way to save this gem of an animal from extinction.

Abhishek Behl: Rightly said, Bharat. It’s high time now that people start realising that we are critically near a disaster but there is hope.

Bharat Tandon: Panha tiger reserve became our national shame. It’s appalling that the symbol of our national pride has become a subjective victim of vested interests ranging from local poachers to Chinese traders.

Abhishek Behl: Did you mean Kanha or Panna here?

Gautham Devara: Abhishek, I have a couple of questions for you. 1) Do you think tourism is possible when most of the sanctuaries are overrun by militants (especially Maoists) and even the police are scared to venture in? 2) The single greatest danger to our wildlife is loss of habitat. India is going through an economic boom, which translates to more forests being cut down and encroachment inside its boundaries. Don't you feel we have a better chance to save the wildlife if the common man is integrated into the plan (like making forestry a part of our school syllabus and having more field trips to the forests for school kids), rather than have a few rich people visiting these places? Tourism is great, but we cannot save wildlife if the average Indian thinks that it is a luxury he can do without.