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This is an archive article published on September 28, 2012
SC to examine fresh guidelines,asks states to respond on Oct 3
So we will now have to act with caution.
Acknowledging that its interim order of absolute ban on tourism in core areas of tiger reserves has created problems for various stakeholders,the Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will now have to act with caution since it had passed this order under an impression that the population of tigers had gone down in the country.
We know lots of people are suffering because of the interim order. So we will now have to act with caution. A lot of emphasis was laid on the fact that the tiger population had tremendously gone down when we had passed the interim order. However,this seems to be incorrect. We also want all the state governments to be ad idem in agreement over the number of tigers in the country, said a Bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar.
The court said that it wanted to examine the new guidelines submitted by the Centre a day ago,so that states could be asked to notify these guidelines as early as possible.
The courts remark came after Additional Solicitor General Indira Jai Singh informed the Bench that the population of tigers was 1,411 as per the 2006 survey,and it went up to 1,706 in the 2010 survey.
It is a very good news that tigers number has gone up. There had been a tremendous stress on the argument that their number had gone down but it seems to be incorrect, said the Bench,as it perused the revised guidelines submitted by the Centre and said that it will very soon decide the issue.
The court made it clear that it would examine the guidelines after receiving responses from state governments and other stakeholders. It has asked all the parties to adduce their written submissions by October 3 and argue their points on that day. The ASG read out the guidelines before the Bench. These guidelines have permitted up to 20 per cent of core tiger habitats as delineated tourism zone.
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