Dudhwa tourists urged to not share pics of tiger cubs

Lakhimpur Kheri

Lakhimpur Kheri

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Field director of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) Sanjay Pathak has appealed to the tourists visiting Dudhwa to not circulate the photographs and videos of Dudhwa tigresses and their cubs on social media.

Describing this as a serious concern about safety of the big cats and their cubs and also against the NTCA guidelines, Pathak said every photo and video recorded location through geotagging, which the poachers could exploit.

Pathak warned that “if this continued, Dudhwa administration would have to think of banning the use of cameras in the reserve.

A group of tourists visiting Kishanpur wildlife sanctuary of the Dudhwa National Park on Saturday had spotted and taken pictures of five cubs and a tigress at a location in the sanctuary. This was in addition to two cubs of another tigress sighted earlier in the sanctuary.

Meanwhile, the field director said the area occupied by the tigresses and their cubs had been put out of tourists’ bound so as to ensure the safety of the big cats and also of the tourists.

Pathak said tigresses were known to be highly possessive about their cubs and frequent presence of humans could result in some untoward incident. “Owing to this, the area having tigresses and cubs had been isolated from tourist activities. Apart from patrolling, cameras had been installed to keep watch on the movements of the cubs and their mothers,” he added.

Pathak said if tourist activities were allowed in the area, it could also lead to cubs getting habitual of human presence and as a result getting abandoned by their mother. “Also, human activities in the forest area could also result in the mother carrying its cubs to cane fields for their safety,” he added.

--Deokant Pandey