BENGALURU: The forest department is working on steps to improve safari tourism in Karnataka. It is now organising workshops on weekends for tourists at Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR) to create awareness and sensitise people on man-animal conflicts.
The workshop has gained popularity not just among Karnataka tourists, but also those from other states. Tourists are now demanding similar workshops in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gujarat, forest officials said.
“People usually visit forests to see a tiger. But that is not all that a forest offers. We started weekend workshops to make tourists understand forests better. During the sessions organised by the department’s naturalists, tourists learn from ants to elephants, trees, plant species, insects and even minor forest produce.
The workshop’s aim is to create awareness on biodiversity and ecology,” BTR Director S Prabhakaran told TNIE.
The department has so far conducted workshops for 24 batches, where people as young as eight to a group of retired government officials have attended them. Tourists are not just from Bengaluru, but from across India, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal. The workshops are held in Kannada and English.
“People come here during weekends for three days and two nights, and after safari, there is nothing much to do. We thought of utilising this time to create awareness and sensitise people.
The workshop is now a success. We are working on adding more features to it.
The aim is to make people appreciate wildlife and to empower them to reduce conflicts in their own way,” said a senior forest official. The workshop is being conducted only in Bandipur now, but gradually it will be extended to all tiger reserves in the state so that more people are sensitised, he added.
He said they had tried multiple ways to shift the focus from tiger tourism, but saw little success. “But workshops seem to be working. Former forest official and well-known environmental expert KM Chinnappa used to hold similar training for some people. We adopted the same idea,” he added.