Beyond Tigers

Tiger’s in India have transcended time. Our understanding of the Great Bengal tiger is constantly changing as it is with everything else in the Natural world. India’s Natural heritage is at a unique threshold on the ecological clock. Our population is our greatest strength for the swiftly developing economy, but its downside is that we have a great equation to solve. The equation of resource use and resource allocation. Eco tourism provides one solution to this equation, although it can never be the only one and neither can it take the weight of the population directly affected by Tiger conservation. Currently, both tourism and conservation are driven by Tigers. Which to an extent has been the right strategy but we must recognize the need to evolve beyond this.

Wildlife tourism in India has been predominantly driven by the lure of spotting the striped cat. This has forced the entire industry to empower itself and create a Tiger centric tourism model, often taking away the bliss of simply experiencing the natural wonder of our incredibly diverse and rich landscape throughout the subcontinent. It is partly to do with the desire or importance one gives to the sheer sighting of a big cat. But it is mostly driven by the way India’s National parks/ natural spaces are being sold. While tracking, sighting and photographing big cats still holds the top spot for most, we must recognize the downside of it. The pressure and prejudices created by trying to sell the Tiger over the past few decades have pushed wildlife tourism in India into a mere puppet show.

Experiential tourism is a largely misunderstood and misinterpreted term. We dwell at a time when capturing a moment on our phone has dwarfed the beauty of living through memories. We must explore the possibilities of learning new ways to simply be and see through the beauty of our land. To experience what has never been, we must look Beyond Tigers.