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Swine
flu Reports Tourism
suffers in Gir sanctuary due to heat by
Suresh Soni Gir
(Gujarat): Tourist inflow to the Gir National Park in Gujarat, the world's
only natural habitat for the rare majestic Asiatic lions, has dipped due to the
intense heat. This year several factors have affected the number of tourists and
wildlife enthusiasts from visiting the sanctuary. Apart from the rise in mercury,
global recession and the Indian Premier League cricket tournament have distracted
the prospective visitors to this place. Consequently, allied services such as
hotels, travel agents and taxi operators have been adversely hit. "Due to the
heat and the IPL cricket matches, the tourist inflow is less. There are about
70 vehicles here. Sometimes we take one or two trips to the Park, but now it is
even once in three to four days sometimes. The business is quite bad," said Rafiq,
a taxi driver. However, the officials manning the sanctuary sounded optimistic
by saying that this is just a seasonal phenomenon and the tourist inflow would
increase when the heat decreases. They also pointed out that there is a particular
time to visit the park as such tourist inflow is not that bad. "For the time being
this maybe the reason. But we are getting more tourists. Everyday the number is
increasing. And there is a time to visit the forest," said Sandeep Kumar Singh,
Divisional Forest Officer, Gir National Park. Established in the year 1965, the
Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary covers a total area of 1412 kilometres
(about 258 kilometres for the fully protected area (the National Park) and 1153
kilometres for the Sanctuary). This region is regarded as one of the most important
protected areas in Asia.
-May
19, 2009 Go
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