Your wildlife experience in India

[Shardul]

The comparison between Africa and India is apples to oranges. While India does have tremendous variety in big game, it is thinly spread out. The reserves are smaller and a lot of them suffer from localised extinction of big herbivores like elephants and buffaloes and rhinos and to see them you have to travel the length and breadth of the country. On the other hand, what Africa offers is a wildlife spectacle, which is frankly incomparable to any place on earth. Endless number of big mammalian species, and most importantly, all in one giant bowl of a grassland. You can pick any one game reserve and are guaranteed to see most of what Africa has to offer.

On the topic of tourism too there is no comparison. Most people come to Africa for wildlife, they'll land in a city, travel to the game reserves and go back. When all tourist activity is concentrated around some areas, you can develop them. In India, wildlife tourism is difficult and non existent. Outside of these forums, most people would be unable to name 2 animals that reside in India. Ask 10 laymen on the street in the US and not 1 will know Gaur, but 8 out of 10 will know the cape buffalo. I have seen a lot of foreign tourists who come for a tiger safari get frustrated at the lack of sightings and the number of vehicles they have to share the sighting with because they have unrealistic expectations. So the animals feel harassed, and the tourists return frustrated. That's why I agreed with the Supreme Court ban on all tiger tourism, since it neither benefits the animals, nor the tourists. At least the animals can have their peace. Additionally, India is not a tourist destination because it is still a lower middle income country with a huge population and most tourism is domestic. So the government will not make any effort to improve tourist infrastructure (the stupid "Incredible India" campaign did more harm than good). It will only improve as the country overall develops, which will still take a long time. Reply