In Forests of Dooars, North Bengal

[Wolverine]

(02-02-2019, 11:33 AM)Rishi Wrote:

(02-02-2019, 07:02 AM)Wolverine Wrote: Tree tops hotel in Pench Tiger reserve, beautiful place. Drinking evening Gene and listening the whisper of the jungle...

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*This image is copyright of its original author

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These kind of resorts should be made illegal.   Tourism is secondary to conservation.

Perfectly good forest & grassland vegetation being privately owned to do as they please!
Surrounding the tigers reserves they are infamous for choking the already fragmented corridors, with fences & constant presence of humans "drinking evening Gin and listening the whisper of the jungle..."

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As you can see, connecting Nepal-Bhutan-Assam, North Bengal has the most number of elephant corridors in the whole sub-continent.

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Permission to construct these must be given only along habitated sides the forest tract in which direction there are no more forests... or in forest villages, so that the local farming & animal-rearing communities can benefit from them. They even can do odd jobs, "tribal dances" etc.

You can't live inside Buxa anymore as National Green Tribunal ordered all the private resorts shut.
That's a good decision. The small old Forest Department lodges inside the forest, just have too much heritage  & overlook a salt-lick or forest clearing etc. They are all being upgraded & i'd advise anyone intending to visit to wait a year or two more...

And, think we should draw the line at the fact that they allow you at Hollong to sit on balcony all night & watch animals visiting the salt-lick with floodlights.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

For sure hotels should be outside the parks not inside. However tourism and conservation often go hand by hand. In order local people to be convinced to protect surounding forests they have to see some benefits, profits from the parks and the way for this is tourism giving them jobs and employment. Also in order governments to find enough money to invest in conservation they can get a big money collected by tourist industry and re-invest them in conservation. Same is whith wildfact, everybody want to see nice pictures of the nature, but the forum needs money. So don"t be so anti-tourist directed.  
But I completely agree that the hotels should be outlawed from the protected areas and moved outside the park borders. We see what happens in Kruger, or Jasper NP or Banff in Canada.

You have to enjoy the fact that already there are a lot of people who want to enjoy the "whisper of the jungle" while only a century ago people wanted to cut and destroy the jungle and to kill all the wild animals. This is still a positive development. Reply