When a Supreme Court Bench on Wednesday noted that “zoos are old”, it was not agreeing with the auditor general on how anachronistic and badly managed such enclosures are across India. Instead, it was green-lighting a night safari project at the 5,000-hectare Kukrail Reserve Forest outside Lucknow, known for housing gharials, sambars and blackbucks. The Supreme Court’s 2004 intervention lifting a ban on after-hours visits to the Taj Mahal has been on a two-decade administrative learning curve about making the trips safe and tourist-friendly. Before the latest move ends up upsetting crocs as well as Crocs-wearing tourists, the government must ensure a strict limit on daily visitors who follow a code of quietude in sight and sound. There’s much to learn in what not to do from night safaris at Bandhavgarh, Wayanad and Pench.