Tigers going extinct, is and ought to be our major national concern. And a visit to Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan restores one’s realization that conserving nature and preserving our nature needs to be the highest priority.
Sighting a Tiger in the wild, is a magnificent sight that you cannot forget. Once you have spotted one in the wild, everything else is a bonus. In a forest like Ranthambore that has lots of Cheetals, Sambhars, Chinkaras, Wild Boars and a host of other animals including Leopards, seeing a Tiger is still the ultimate thrill for visitors to the park. And doing that over a New Year weekend provides a welcome relief to those who want to get away from all and for those who are seeking the restorative qualities of quietitude in the raw.
The Jaisal and Anjali Singh, owned ‘Sher Bagh’ with its luxurious tented accommodation and some of the most experienced forest drivers is clearly the best place to be when you visit. Sher Bagh’s proud Manager, Yusuf Ansari says, “Ranthambore is the only national park worldwide that allows you to combine pure nature along with ancient history”. Indeed, Ranthambore National Park has a beautiful jewel of a pre Mughal fort that is massive and awesome in itself and as a result the park is dotted with ancient monuments through which the wildlife now roam freely and fiercely.
The big cat is clearly the king of the jungle and the 1,400 acres of forest has allowed the park management to build up it’s fast dwindling population in recent years. Today the latest estimates are that Ranthambore now has close to 40 Tigers. An energetic and efficient DFO like the one in charge currently, clearly makes a difference to Park morale and animal mortality. But alas, these too are often changed by whimsical bureaucrats.
Ranthambore’s biggest and most obvious problem is a temple within the buffer zone that causes massive human pollution levels and encourages rampant commercialism. The crowds who go fairly deep into the Park arrive in hordes and place an unfair burden on the Forest Department. They are neither regulated nor even policed in any real sense.
Sadly the authorities have not been able to control the boorish behaviour of many tourists either who defile the park with behaviour that is uncaring for nature and the location they are in. They very often attempt to disturb animals, pay little attention to park etiquette and generally ruin the experience to those unfortunate enough to be stuck in the Park’s diesel-fume spewing Canters. But despite all this, clearly the park is popular and packed with Indian and foreign tourists who recognize it as an ideal spot to get a glimpse of a Tiger in the wild.
Sher Bagh and the quiet of the jungle are one very potent kind of combination that Indian Tourism needs for a sustainable future. In a fast paced world, where conservation and nature are the new buzz words, the appeal to both domestic and foreign tourists is only likely to increase with years ahead. Simple tents that have superb comfort levels are only one part of Sher Bagh’s appeal. An eco-friendly approach permeates everything they do-a model for those who need to study luxury tourism micro-cosms that work well. Given a more forward looking and quality conscious tourism policy, this kind of resort could be the model that makes an Incredible India that goes beyond the more obvious tourist trails as a magnet for global travelers in the future. Of course, this require concentrated efforts to make sure that the battle is between development, politics, man and nature is more often ,decided in favour of nature – which sadly, like Tigers, suffer simply because they do not have a vote.
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