New Delhi (TAN): Fifteen tourists have been fined INR5,000 each for leaving their safari vehicles and walking a kilometre to the exit of the tiger reserve at Jim Corbett National Park, India’s oldest.
Visitors are forbidden to get off their vehicles and the Corbett Tiger Reserve has slapped the fined following the provisions of India’s Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Speaking to The Times of India newspaper, Rahul, the director of Corbett Tiger Reserve, which is situated in North India’s Uttarakhand state, said: “The group complained to the administration that the guide and Gyspy (a four-wheel drive car model, popularly used as an off-road vehicle) drivers had misbehaved with them. We conducted an inquiry and found that the tourists had stepped out of the vehicle inside the protected area which led to an altercation with the guide and the drivers. The tourists then walked back.”
“Getting out of the vehicle in the protected area is prohibited to ensure safety and security of wildlife and tourists. The group has therefore been fined,” Rahul said.
Corbett National Park is home to a large number of Royal Bengal tigers, leopards and elephants among other fauna.
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Ram Singh, the guide who accompanied the group, said the visitors did not listen when he and the drivers told them not to leave the vehicles.
“We were not aware of the rules and we will not repeat such a thing in the future,” Surinder Singh, a member of the group who was fined, told The Times of India.
