John McConnico for the New York TimesA tiger at Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka.India's Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted the ban on tourism in the core areas of the country's tiger reserves and asked state governments to draw up conservation plans that follow the guidelines prepared by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
India is home to approximately half of the world's tiger population, with an estimated 1,700 in the country. On July 24, the Supreme Court had banned tourists from the “core areasâ€, or the inner parts of parks where tigers are believed to breed and hunt, of all 41 tiger sanctuaries in the country, citing the danger posed to the animal by to urist traffic in parts of the reserves. Following the order, state governments raised objections that the ban would hurt the states that depended on tourism revenue, and the central government asked the Supreme Court to review the ban.
As per Tuesday's ruling, each state government has been asked to prepare a tiger conservation plan that adheres to the national authority's guidelines. These guidelines limit tourism to 20 percent of the core areas of tiger reserves and national parks, or the areas where tigers are believed to travel, breed and hunt.
The agency's guidelines said “regulated low-impact tourism†would be allowed in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that have been designated as core and critical tiger habitats. However, the guidelines forbid any new tourism infrastructure in these areas.
