Wildlife Tourism in India

Introduction to Wildlife tourism

Approximately 4% of the total Indian land is forests in which 90 forests are national parks and 482 Wildlife Sanctuaries. According to statistics, India has 60-70% world’s bio diversity.

In Indian forests you will find a variety of wildlife. From Asian Elephants to Asiatic Lion, Bengal Tiger, Sloth Bear, Indian Rhinoceros and Leopard, you will find all of them here. There are hundreds of bird species and it is one of the best places for bird watching.

Some National parks like Jim Corbett National Parkk

(Uttaranchal), Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, Gir National Park in Sasangir (Gujarat), Ranthambore National Parkin Sawai Madhopur are rich in bird species.

History of WLT

Way back in 1973, Bandhavgarh, Ranthambore and Sariska were launched as national parks. In the year 2000, September 24^th, a need arises for the departments of forest, transport, fisheries and tourism to co-ordinate their resources. But for India it still looks like a dream. Despite of chaotic management, in Dec 2004 Dec 24^th, tourism saw growth due to availability of fantastic locales which were perfect to attract tourists from worldwide. In 2002, Kerala Tourism Development Corporation entered into a partnership with Indian Tourism Development Corporation development of tourism in Kerala.This included that sites for water sports, wildlif

e tourism, backwater holidays and mountain activities be identified. An year later in October India has more number of tourist pouring in to visit the national parks. The industry by now had started sustaining a substantial amount of people.The recent news is that Taj Hotels have entered into a treaty with Conservation Corporation Africa to promote wildlife tourism in India.

Present Situation

In India, the Wildlife Tourism industry is one of the most progressive. In 2006 talks of having policies to align wildlife in the country were in circulation. They wanted to assign this to think tanks which could help adopt the African Safari Model. By 2007, eco tourism was a properly introduced concept, which gained momentum but marketing of wildlife tourism was even then done poorly. The ways were unscientific and unsystematic. The wildlife is abundant in the country but still there are improper mans to exploit their real potential.