8/11/2016
Mobiles of trackers, drivers banned inside Gir sanctuary
The Times Of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Mobiles-of-trackers-drivers-banned-inside-Gir-sanctuary/articleshow/55303786.cms
SASAN (GIR): The forest department has banned the use of mobile phones for guides,trackers and safari drivers on the eight tourists routes in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary to control the unregulated movements of the vehicles that often disturbed the Asiatic lions in their natural habitat.
Besides managing the tourists in the sanctuary, the decision is also aimed at breaking the flourishing nexus between some trackers and a few Gypsy drivers that used to result in large number of vehicles crowding at the same spot where lions were seen in good numbers.
"No guides, trackers and gypsy drivers are allowed to take mobile phones with them when they enter the sanctuary with tourists. The objective is to manage the tourists' zones in a way that they don't disturb lions in their natural habitats. We have received good response from this new initiative,'' said Ram Ratan Nala, deputy conservator of forests, wildlife division, Sasan-Gir.
Officials said that there were several instances when guides would contact trackers to know the location of lions in tourists' zone and several Gypsys would gather at one spot. This would naturally disturb the lions as they were surrounded by so many vehicles and chances of human-lion conflict would be more.
The sanctuary is witnessing an unprecedented influx of tourists. In just seven days from October 30 to November 6, 50,368 tourists visited the Devaliya Interpretation Zone while 6,835 visited the sanctuary. The department is issuing 90 permits daily to visit the sanctuary. There are 20 trackers inside tourists' zone and eight tourist routes in the sanctuary.
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