Rajaji Park closed for visitors

The RajajiNational Park, famous for its elephants, which spreads over parts of Haridwar, Pauri and Dehradun districts, has been closed for visitors. After remaining closed for about 5 months, the park will reopen on November 15. Since during the Monsoon season the roads in the park gets damaged and due to luxuriant growth of trees and vegetation it is not safe to move through the park at this time of the season, the park is closed every year for tourists during these months. Annual cleaning and repair of roads is carried out by the park personnel during this period. The director of the park, S.S. Rasaily, said that during the last season the park earned the revenue of Rs. 43.43 lakhs from the tourists who visited the park to see the rich wildlife in the park.

"The different ranges of the park were visited by 1045 domestic tourists and 1870 foreign tourist", informed the director. During the rainy season the wildlife mafia and the timber smugglers increase their activities in the park. So the park personnel have been instructed to intensify patrolling in the park, specially in the sensitive areas. The director of the park told that every effort was being made to develop the park as a hub of eco tourism and wildlife tourism. However, our main objective is to protect the wild life in the park and no tourism exercise can be permitted at the cost of the flora and fauna of the park", said the director.