But what’s worse? Is a sugarcane field, which can provide shelter to a tigress and her three cubs, but carries the poaching/ poisoning threat better or worse than a resort, which may not even succeed in sensitising a tourist to the needs — and norms — of a forest? The answer lies in management.

Tour Operators for Tigers (TOFT), a UK-based tour operator company that seeks to initiate responsible action on tourism, suggests that strict norms be set down for construction of resorts and the behaviour of tourists. And the answers may not be so hard to find. The state government, working with biologists, can set up norms for the construction of a resort around a rich forest like a tiger reserve, setting aside a very small area for the actual construction of a building. In Satpura tiger reserve, such initiatives have been made by private, not government players.

The government also has to look at the possibility of reclaiming land for forests from farmers who find cropping in adjoining areas a losing battle. Afforestation in such areas also has the exciting possibility of carbon sequestration and the achievement of carbon credits.

Having 40 tiger reserves in the country may not be the answer. If our famed, magnificent animals are moving, our policies need to move with them.

neha.sinha@expressindia.com