Jungle jungle baat chali hai…

… that the facilities available in Rajaji National Park are not up to the mark and cannot lure tourists. So the state must improve them immediately if it wants to exploit the tourist season to the fullest

Anjali Nauriyal

Rajaji National Park is rated amongst the best conservation reserves of Northern India. And Doon stands to gain from this stature as it is situated at its doorstep. But what one finds at the entrance of the park, when one is waiting to embark on a jungle safari, is lack of basic facilities that would certainly put off any tourist and dissuade him/her from visiting the park the next time. Here a disheveled tea shop can only provide you messy tea with tousled chowmein or scruffy omelet at tidy prices. It's high time someone spruced up the place and offered basic cooking classes to the joint owner, so that they can treat the tourism industry the dignity that it deserves. Of course, the tourist, especially the weary one, does not expect a five-star treatment but the essential services, like clean drinking water, a good cuppa and hygienic food, to keep him or her going.

G.S. Pande, former director of the park, comments, "The long-term survival of this park needs commitment of the people in various echelons from policy makers, field officers, institutions involved in conservation, local communities and other stake-holders at present and the future."

Rajaji Park forms part of the Tarai Arc landscape between Yamuna and Sharda rivers identified as Rajaji-Corbett Conservation Unit (RCTCU). Though this landscape is interrupted by the now expanding towns of Haridwar, Kotdwar and Lalkuan, it brings out the fact that it is important to maintain this unit since it contributes to the gene pool of rare wildlife animals that reside here and is crucial to their survival in the long run.

The park is also home to many endangered species such as the Great Pied Hornbill and King Cobra. All these give the park its rare status. "But our younger generations hardly know the value of this park. So something needs to be done in this regard if they are to value and preserve it in future," comments a visitor from Delhi.

Recently a couple of elephants were bought by the forest department for lakhs of rupees to cater the tourists, but there are no mahouts to ride them and these poor creatures can be seen tied with chains at the entrance of the park, jeered and troubled by onlookers. So much for systematic tourism! The park is also facing many other challenges. According to Anjali Bharthari, who has worked on a book on Rajaji, "When the park was created, there were communities like Gujjars and Gothias living inside the park and it had taungyas villages, highways, railway lines and a canal passing through the park. Its proximity to three expanding large towns of Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun itself were a big threat. The growth of Motichur and Raiwala villages near Haridwar has further proved to be an added threat to the park."

But that's not all. Now a word about the vehicles that carry tourists on safaris - the supposedly untrained operators conduct the safaris at such top speed that the possibility of sighting animals becomes almost nil. Whizzing past in these vehicles, tourists can only feel disconcerted and in no frame of mind to look for perturbed animals. But will there be a next time for them? Point to ponder.