Responsible India wildlife vacations

Sadly, it is the myth and highly monetised notion that tiger body parts are cure alls in Traditional Chinese Medicine that has put such a high price on the life of a tiger, even though killing one is illegal. And, given how few tigers there are left in the wild, immoral. There are some issues we won’t sugar coat at Responsible Travel, and this is one of them. There is no scientific proof that tigers’ eyes, bone, brain or indeed penises can cure epilepsy, rheumatism, acne or be an aphrodisiac, respectively. Although ‘respect’ is far from the remit of this vile industry. Of course there is little that tourists can do about this, but you can support organisations that work tirelessly to put a stop to it. And you can also support local communities that are now gaining an income from wildlife tourism to show them that tigers turn us on in so many other ways. And we will pay royally for that pleasure too. Read our Tiger Safaris Travel guide for more gruesome details.

What you can do
Support lobbying charities such as WWF, Born Free and WildAid which work on the ground and at government level to prevent poaching and destruction of wildlife habitats. A very useful website is the Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT), which not only leads strong campaigns for responsible tiger tourism in India, but has also developed a rating system that measures the ‘footprint’ of individual lodges and hotels in India’s wilderness regions, called the PUG Rating. Another great website is Tiger Nation a website created in India, where you can upload your photos or video footage, share them on social media, but also have the details added to scientific databases for vital research purposes.

A common way to see wildlife in India is on the back of an elephant. And who wouldn’t be tempted to experience such an exciting thing? Well, once you understand some of the cruelty that elephants undergo, then you might think again. There are several problems associated with using elephants for tiger safaris, also known as ‘tiger shows’. Firstly, the majority of elephants used for rides are captured in the wild as babies. Today, the wild capture of elephants presents one of the biggest threats to remaining populations of endangered Asian elephants, particularly as capturing a baby often requires the mother and other adult elephants to be killed. Secondly, you are generally not guided by a nature expert, but by a mahout or elephant trainer whose only focus is bellowing out instructions to the elephant. And thirdly, elephants being used for this purpose will almost certainly have been mistreated, shackled and trained with implements such as bullhooks in order to train them – known as “crushing the spirit.”

However, we do recognise that within some national parks, such as Periyar, Satpura and Tadoba , tiger shows are a fundamental funding arm for wildlife conservation, and it would create more harm than good to completely boycott them right now. As threatened as elephants are, the tigers and rhinos are in a far more critical position. Tourism in these parks has been key to the rise in tiger numbers, as well as conserving the highly endangered rhinos that also inhabit some of India’s national parks, and are hunted for their horns. But there is never an excuse to ride elephants outside of these protected areas – and ideally, in the future, this practice will no longer need to exist at all.

What you can do:
Read more about the pros and cons of riding elephants in our ‘Elephants in tourism’ guide, and please do not support the temples which have elephants chained up as a way of raising money, nor ones that perform for tourists either. Same goes for elephants that are painted and decorated for festivals, particularly popular in Jaipur.

One of the issues of wildlife vacations in India is that there is still no national wildlife guiding association and national park rules vary per state. Very often guides are hired from the local community which, in theory, is a good thing. However, in India, if guides are hired from within certain tribal communities, they are considered ‘untouchables’ within the caste system, something that is still carries weight particularly within the older generation of Indians, many of whom are vacationing at home and on safari. The relationship between tourist and guide can, therefore, come across as more like servant and master, and does not always promulgate a positive wildlife watching environment. With 95 percent of tourists being from India, this can create a feeling of discomfort for international visitors.

There is often controversy around protecting wildlife habitats, and India is no exception. In 2015, the National Tiger Conservation Authority announced the opening of three new tiger reserves, meaning that the country will soon have 50. The problem is that local people are displaced in these reserve areas and moved into ‘buffer zones’. But even in these buffer zones, their activities are restricted. Yes, these people may be offered employment in the national parks and reserves, but much of this work is seasonal so poaching is still an attractive way to make a living for many. The reason they poach is, predominantly, to sell the tiger body parts to China for the traditional medicine market. Which is why supporting all local initiatives within these areas, not just the parks or reserves, is vital. Stay at homestays, eat locally, use porters as well as local guides and buy local handicrafts.

For more details on India’s complex journey from obliteration to conservation of wildlife, treat yourself to local environmental historian Mahesh Rangarajan’s books: India's Wildlife History and The Oxford Anthology of Indian Wildlife.