Many aspects of wildlife tourism we are not talking about

Years ago, on my first ever wildlife safari, I was given a chance to do the elephant safari. With such great excitement, our group of four wildlife “enthusiasts” got on the back of an elephant. Very aware of my own heft and that of the others, after 10 minutes into the safari, just when it was too late to turn around, I came to the realisation that all I wanted to do at that moment was to get down from the elephant’s back.

The mahout’s words of reassurance “don’t worry, the elephant can carry the weight” did not help one bit.

This was more than a decade ago and, to this day, this memory lives in my head rent-free, a painful reminder to never do that again.

Let’s talk about the grey area, that is, wildlife tourism.

Wildlife safaris are mostly done in two ways – jeep/canter safari and elephant safari. This is a grey area as when we talk about safari tourism, we are often met with “we are disturbing the wild areas”. But it is also true that safari tourism is one of the most effective ways to educate people about nature, the natural habitat, and most importantly, the conservation of wildlife in general.

In pic: A langur’s failed attempt at grabbing a bag of food items from a safari vehicle.

How often do you take out time to do basic research on the national park you are planning to visit? How often do you try to find out what these national parks’ initiatives are when it comes to wildlife, land and community conservation? Are these wildlife parks imparting knowledge on how to conserve the natural world, or at least educating people about the animals and their habitats?

The iron poke, improper nutrition, carrying upto six people on the back multiple times a day, these are just some of the many things an elephant goes through during its “working years”. Let’s just hope that they don’t have to go through multiple scrubbing sessions, for an extended period of time, when visitors flock to give the elephants a bath. One can only hope.

Have you come across pictures on social media where you can see a tiger is either lying down or crossing a road and behind it are safari jeeps full of people? When there are six to seven jeeps full of people in a tiger territory, it ceases to become a natural setting.

Now that’s just dark. It’s sad to say that more often than not we are met with scenes where ambitious photographers ditch their patience and throw a stone or worse, a plastic bottle at birds to catch a flying shot? You might be tempted to say that this can’t be true, but again, sadly it happens way more often than not.

Problems arise when we overdo things and do things that we are not supposed to. There’s a very clear line here, not blurred or subtle; which side are you on?

(Representational image)

Since this is getting a tad bit depressing, let me also add that though wildlife tourism may be a grey area, there are some positive things happening too. One of the best examples we know of today is the Theppakadu Elephant Camp, one of the oldest elephant camps in Asia. It was established in 1927 as an elephant rehabilitation camp. The Oscar winning movie The Elephant Whisperers was filmed here. The movie also talks about the care that goes into rehabilitation of animals in trouble. Also examples of positivity comes from Periyar Tiger Reserve where ex poachers are now tourist guides. Similarly, in Pakke Tiger Reserve, ex hunters are now taking care of the nests of the endangered hornbills.