BENGALURU: The Karnataka forest department is planning to open safaris in a graded manner to adhere to the Covid protocol in each district. To manage the crowd in the safaris, the department is contemplating on making it mandatory for tourists to carry both the Covid vaccination certificates.
The exercise started after the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the National Tiger Conservation Authority issued orders to chief wildlife wardens permitting their opening.While Kali Tiger Reserve and MM Hills have opened up to tourists, the two prime safari destinations — Bandipur and Nagarhole tiger reserves — are still out of bounds as they fall in the Kodagu, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru divisions, where lockdown restrictions are still in place.
“We do not want to take any chances with our staffers and their families residing in the vicinity of forest areas. Also going by past experiences, when tourism was permitted, the rush was high and crowd management had become a challenge,” a forest department official said.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Subhash Malkhade clarified that the safaris will be opened division wise in accordance with the Covid protocol. At Bhadra and BRT, staffers are awaiting the final clearance from the district administrations and chief wildlife wardens. The safari and forest guest houses opened up on Thursday at the Kali Tiger Reserve.