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Dudhwa entry fee slashed by half, jumbo ride rate down to ₹500
Chairing the governing body meeting of Dudhwa National Park, the forest minister said the reduced fee would attract more tourists, and support investors to start hotels within one kilometre of the national park.
The state forest department has granted its approval to bring down the hiked tariffs for people visiting the Dudhwa National Park in the next tourist season starting November 15.
Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) field director Lalit Verma told HT the Dudhwa Tiger Conservation Foundation (DTCF), in its meeting chaired by the forest minister Arun Kumar Saxena in Lucknow on Wednesday, decided to slash the existing tariffs to bring down the fees for park entry, elephant rides and safari vehicles, adding that the exact rate chart would be published soon.
Chairing the governing body meeting of Dudhwa National Park, the forest minister said the reduced fee would attract more tourists, and support investors to start hotels within one kilometre of the national park.
While the general tourist fee has been brought down from ₹300 to ₹150, the charge for safari vehicles was reduced from ₹600 to ₹200; an elephant ride can now be availed for ₹500 instead of ₹2,000 last season, the minister said.
Principal chief conservator of forests Sudhir Kumar Sharma and other officials were present in the meeting.
It may be noted that the fees for various services at Dudhwa witnessed a sharp increase last season when the park reopened for the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In some cases, the fees were even tripled.
Pallia BJP MLA Harjinder Sahni told HT that the sharp increase in fees had an adverse impact on Dudhwa tourism, following which he raised the issue before forest authorities requesting them to revise the rates.
Sahni added that in the DTCF meeting held today in Lucknow, he once again put up the matter before the entire committee.
