“Since the core areas are meant to be kept inviolate for tigers, artefacts like foundation stones, commemorative exhibits, signages, should not be installed at any cost,” the directives say, also calling for a ban on the entry of tourist jeeps, trucks and lorries in these areas. ‘Core’ areas in this context are defined as critical zones in tiger reserves where no human population is permitted as per a 2006 Amendment in the Wildlife Protection Act.

In addition, amid reports that donations from individuals were being used to carry out various ‘projects’, the NTCA has ordered, “No individual can prescribe field activities in tiger reserves”. It has also directed official forest staff to intervene to a “minimum” in core areas. The idea is to minimise all interference— whether ‘official’, through the forest department, or unofficial, through outside agencies.

To preserve the core area, the NTCA will now rely on the wisdom of the Supreme Court, and not the discretion of state forest departments. The directive states: “No outside agency will be allowed any field activity in the core area without prior permission from the apex court.”

While all tiger reserves have designated ‘tourism zones’, several of these continue to overlap with core tiger areas despite the 2006 Amendment.

The ultimate aim now is to phase out all tourist activities in core areas, an ambitious task by any standard. In order to keep core tiger areas inviolate, villages — there are hundreds left here — are being moved out, with each adult villager getting a Rs 10-lakh rehabilitation package.

A Monitoring Committee set up by the NTCA — comprising NTCA member-secretary Rajesh Gopal, Centre for Science and Environment’s Sunita Narain, and environmentalist Samar Singh — will oversee smooth relocation, rehabilitation packages, and also explore the possibility of bringing pro-poor schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to rehabilitated villagers.

Phasing out tourism is the next logical step, says the NTCA. “It is an anomaly to move villages out of core areas, but allow tourism to continue there. We want tourism to be phased out only in core areas but to continue in encircling buffer zones of tiger reserves,” says NTCA member-secretary Rajesh Gopal.

The deaths of tigers, despite strong protection measures, has come under focus again this year, with the big cats losing their lives even in healthy populations. The Indian Express had earlier reported how tigers were being adversely affected by heavy tourism in Corbett Tiger Reserve (Uttarakhand), while Madhya Pradesh, known as the tiger state, lost all its 24 tigers from Panna Tiger Reserve. Neighbouring Kanha, too, lost at least six tigers in the past few months to various causes. Responding to the situation, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism Sujit Banerjee recently called a meeting of officials from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, to discuss the affects of tourism on tiger reserves.