After safari tourists block way of tigress and cubs, Maharashtra bans mobile phones in all reserved forests

This decision follows the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench taking cognisance of a news report that vehicles carrying tourists blocked the way of a tigress named F2 and her five cubs in a tiger reserve in Vidarbha on December 31, 2024. The court also reviewed a video clip of the incident that circulated on social media platforms.

Vivek Khandekar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), in an affidavit filed through senior advocate Devendra Chauhan, informed the high court that a panel headed by the deputy director of the Bor Tiger Project has been constituted to frame standard operating procedures or guidelines with the assistance of wildlife experts and officials regarding the conduct of owners of safari vehicles, guides and tourists in the reserves.

The court was informed that the decision was made during a January 6 meeting chaired by the additional chief secretary of the revenue and forest department and attended by top forest officials.

No mobile phone policy already at Tadoba Tiger Reserve

The chief conservation officers of the reserves have been tasked with ensuring strict implementation of the measure.

The minutes of the January 6 meeting showed that as tourists crowd near tiger-spotting areas, causing disturbances to wild animals, the policy prohibiting mobile phone use — already in place at the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve — will be adopted in all other reserved forests in the state.

Five-month-old cubs “were dragged into a situation of scare only because of avoidable human negligence”, the affidavit said. “The wildlife deserves to be protected and wild animals have the right to free movement. The issue is an eye-opener, and we are not taking it lightly,” it further said.

A bench of Justices Nitin W Sambre and Vrushali V Joshi heard a suo motu PIL petition initiated by the court, taking cognisance of a report published in Loksatta about Gypsies driven by forest department-approved drivers and guided by trained guides blocking the way of the tigress in the Umrer-Paoni-Karhandla Tiger Reserve.

In its order, the bench termed the chaos caused by tourists’ vehicles as a “shocking and disturbing scenario” and said the conduct of drivers, guides and tourists was “completely unruly and in defiance of rules”. The bench also said that after the news report was published, the field director reviewed an earlier “lenient” order suspending the drivers and guides for seven days, extending it to three months and imposing a fine of Rs 25,000 on the Gypsy owners and Rs 1,000 on each tourist guide.

The court reprimanded the forest department for a “complete failure of intelligence” and said forest officials must be made sensitive to the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 regarding causing disturbance, teasing or molesting any wild animal, among other issues.

On January 10, while appreciating the immediate steps taken by the authorities, including an inquiry and punishment for the violating drivers and guides, the court remarked that “there is something more required to be done at the end of the Forest Department”.

The petition will be heard again on January 20.