The Supreme Court order passed on Tuesday, banning tourism in the core tiger reserve areas, may not affect the ongoing tourism initiatives at Periyar and Parambikualm - the two tiger reserves in the state.
The tourism activities inside these reserves are limited to well outside the core areas.
“The order won’t affect the ongoing activities here. We have already taken note of the core and buffer areas. The tourism activities will be limited to outside these regions. We have complied with the directives issued by the higher authorities in this regard,” said a top forest official of the Periyar Tiger Reserve(PTR).
Earlier, the apex court had directed the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to submit the guidelines related to tourism in core area. The NTCA has also asked tiger reserves in the country to ban tourism activities inside the core area. Based on this, the PTR has taken action to ban tourism activities inside the core area.
“Based on the directives issued by the NTCA, the PTR wound up its tourism-related activities within the core areas by 2012,” the official said. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued strict directives to the states to notify the buffer zones. The court came down heavily on Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for not notifying the buffer and core areas in the tiger reserves.