New Delhi, Jul 24: Stepping in to conserve the big cat, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that there shall be no tourism activity in any of the core zones of tiger reserves across the country.
A bench of Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla also warned of contempt proceedings and imposition of exemplary costs on states which failed to notify the buffer zones in their respective tiger reserves.
"We make it clear that till final directions are issued by this court, the core zones or core areas in the tiger reserves will not be used for tourism," the bench said in its order.
The apex court was also furious that several states despite its earlier directions of April 4 and July 10 had failed to notify the buffer zones in their respective reserves and warned that if they failed to comply within three weeks the defaulting states shall be saddled with a cost of Rs50,000 each, recoverable from the principal secretary, forest of the state concerned.
The apex court also imposed a cost of Rs10,000 each on Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra and Jharkhand for not complying with its directions.
However, counsel for Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand stated that they were ready with the notification and would file appropriate affidavits during the course of the day.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by conservationist Ajay Dubey demanding removal of commercial tourism activities from core or critical tiger habitats in the tiger reserves.
On July 10, the apex court had granted two more weeks "as last opportunity" to states which had defaulted in notifying buffer zones around tiger reserves to regulate commercialisation of revenue land around big cat habitats and help preserve the endangered species.
On April 4, the court had asked Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra to notify the zones within three months.
Rajasthan had informed the court that it had notified the zones.
Under Section 38(b) and Explanation 1 and 2 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the states have to notify the list of core and buffer areas of tiger reserves undertheir respective jurisdiction.
Under the Act, buffer zones are the areas peripheral to the critical tiger habitats or core areas providing supplementary habitats for dispersing tigers and offering scope for co-existence of human activity.
The buffer zones constitute the fringe areas of tiger reserves up to a distance of 10km.
It has been alleged in the PIL that in violation of the conservation norms, authorities in various states had permitted large-scale construction of hotels, resorts and tourism projects, thereby gravely disturbing wildlife activities.
Travel Operators for Tigers India chairman Julian Matthews in a statement said: “We are devastated with Supreme Court's decision and will file for a review of petition in the interest of the forests of India, conservation of the tiger population and livelihoods of many bordering forest communities. This judgment goes against the very mission statement of NTCA/Project Tiger."
Matthews said: "This decision is a fundamentally retrograde step. It chooses poachers, illegal grazers and woodchoppers over a non-extractive mode of preserving and funding the protection of wilderness landscape.
"We are perplexed that the Supreme Court has chosen to disregard the clear evidence that proves that wildlife tourism within India Tiger Parks is not harming tigers.
"The highest densities of tigers can be found today in the most heavily visited Tiger Reserves including Corbett, Kaziranga and Bandhavgarh.
"The latest NTCA Tiger census published in March 2011, show that the tiger numbers went up in all these parks – at the same time as tourism numbers have increased significantly.
"At the same time, unseen and unloved sanctuaries and forest corridors lost all their tigers and wildlife to poaching, grazing, neglect, agriculture and extractive pressures.
"We urge the Supreme Court to consider a review petition and continue to allow “responsible tourism” across National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries", he said.
