Tourists' Selfie Craze Forcing Thirsty Elephants To Abandon Water Sources In Corbett National Park
Forest department is gearing up to ensure that tourist activity does not disturb animals, after reports that tourists in the Ramnagar forest division adjacent to Corbett had hampered the movement of a herd of wild elephants on their way to a water hole. A jeep full of tourists had stopped in the jungle in the Pawalgarh range of Ramnagar forest division when they saw a herd of elephants.
Officials of the forest department are gearing up to ensure that tourist activity does not disturb animals in the future after reports that tourists in the Ramnagar forest division adjacent to Corbett had on Wednesday hampered the movement of a herd of wild elephants on their way to a water hole.
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According to reports, a jeep full of tourists had stopped in the jungle in the Pawalgarh range of Ramnagar forest division when they saw a herd of elephants. They started taking selfies and clicking photographs.
Disturbed at this, the herd after reportedly waiting for more than half-an-hour for the tourists to make way, turned back instead of going to the water source where it was headed to quench its thirst.
Confirming the incident, Kehkashan Naseem, divisional forest officer, Ramnagar division, told TOI, "We received complaints on Wednesday about the incident and the matter is being looked into. Any such instance will not be tolerated and will be dealt with sternly".
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As per the guidelines of the forest department, a vehicle taking tourists on a jungle safari should not block the way of wild animals. Neither are tourists permitted to step out of the vehicle to take pictures.
The incident was brought to the notice of the forest ranger by two residents of the adjoining Patkot area who spotted the safari jeep full of tourists busy taking photographs and clogging the road.
"We were on our bike in the Jamunchaur area of the Pawalgarh forest range when we saw that the herd's way was being blocked by safari jeeps. We immediately complained to the forest department," said Sandeep Singh, one of the complainants.
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The incident also highlights the increasing scarcity of water for animals inside the forests of Kumaon due to which they have to travel long distances to quench their thirst. TOI had reported a few days ago that 1.5 lakh litres of water was being procured every day by the forest department to meet the drinking water requirements of animals inside the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
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