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.