India bans tiger tourism

India has announced holidaymakers will not longer be allowed to visit tiger reserves following fears that tiger tourism is threatening to kill off the endangered animals.

Tiger tourism will be phased out by the government, which will ban holidaymakers from entering the 37 game reserves where the Bengal tiger lives.

Rajesh Gopal, the head of India's National Tiger Conservation Authority, told The Times newspaper: We should not forget that tiger reserves are primarily for conserving the endangered tiger and tourism is just a secondary outcome.

"Our reserves are small and prone to disturbance caused by tourism. They cannot compete with large African savanna parks, which can stand large number of tourists."

Responsibletravel.com, which promotes wildlife holidays to India, said it hoped 'properly regulated and managed responsible tiger tourism' can resume in the future.

A spokeswoman said: "As India has been unable to manage responsible tiger tourism, responsibletravel.com reluctantly agrees that a temporary ban is necessary at this critical stage. It's very sad that it's come to this, let's hope it's not too late."

India's tiger population has fallen by almost two-thirds in the past six years and some believe there are only 800 still living in the wild. There are even fears the species could become extinct in less than five years.

But as responsibletourism.com pointed out poaching, not tourism, is the main reason for the falling numbers; 11 tigers have been killed by poachers so far this year.

However, the building of lodges to accommodate tourists visiting the reserves has caused significant damage to the natural habitat and off-road vehicles and elephant safaris have further destroyed the grassland and driven away the tigers' natural prey, say authorities.

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