BENGALURU: In all eagerness, the tourism department has taken to aggressive advertising of destinations and events on social media to woo tourists and give private players a run for their monies. But little did it realise that the choice of words for the tag lines could become a major headache for itself and the forest department too.
The department has come up with tag lines for each destination and tourist site — like ‘Mapped to Chikmagaluru’, ‘Tracing the History of Hampi’ and ‘Intricacies of language-Mattur’. But what has created huge confusion is the caption ‘Study of Wildlife-Bandipur’.
For about a week now, officials of the forest and tourism departments are being flooded with calls from citizens and volunteers who want to be part of the ‘study of wildlife’. And the officials are at their wit’s end trying to explain to every caller that it is not a ‘study’ as such and that the tag line is meant to be ‘Study Wildlife’.
Senior officials in the two departments were not even aware of any such ‘study’. They started calling up each other to check what it was all about. Some even thought that it must have been an announcement made by minister CT Ravi. Bandipur Tiger Reserve director T Balachandra confirmed that he had received many calls making inquiries, but he was not aware of any ‘study’.
Some Bengalureans, who could not be part of the tiger and elephant census in Bandipur Tiger Reserve had jumped at the ‘opportunity’. “I did not want to miss being a part of the wildlife study this time. I was unable to participate in the tiger and elephant census because of the restriction on the number of people. But I was disappointed to learn that it was not what it was said to be.
It read as if it was a study of wildlife, but I was told that it means ‘come and study wildlife in Bandipur’,” said Swati B, a software professional. It took Jungle Lodges and Resorts Managing Director Vijay Sharma to finally clear the air. He said the tourism department had hired a new team to handle marketing and promotional activities and this could be a ‘small error’ by them which, he said, will be corrected.