Sanjay Gandhi National Park amenities need upgrade

Vikas Gupta, director & chief conservator of forest of Sanjay Gandhi National Park spoke to Ateeq Shaikh on how he plans to make the park more tourist-friendly and his strategy on curbing man-animal conflicts. Excerpts:

It’s been over a week now that you have taken charge of the park. What will be your focus areas?
I like walking and take rounds of SGNP, as if I am a tourist. Firstly, what I have found is, public amenities need to be upgraded. The toilets are bad and there are hardly any drinking water kiosks. It’s easy to construct toilet blocks, what we want is that they be maintained well. Secondly, tourists should get certified drinking water. Thirdly, there should be a canteen inside the park. And, lastly, I want to make the public aware about the tracks and trails inside the park. We may put them on our websites and publish brochures too.

What’ll the brochures have?
One brochure, for beginners, will have information on the basics of trekking in forests. Another (brochure) will have availability of the trails for trekkers, from where they should start and end. The third brochure will be on the existing flora and fauna inside the SGNP.

What about man-animal conflict? We have witnessed several leopard attacks in the recent past.
We will install signages along the tracks informing people about the leopards and the fears or myths surrounding the animal. For years, the big cat has been living on the periphery of the forest.

We must learn to live with them and follow certain steps to reduce conflicts. We are also trying to approach schools in the conflict zones. The children and teachers will be briefed and they will then spread the message at home. Awareness campaigns have happened in the past and will continue. Plus, SGNP’s rescue team will train forest officers from Thane Territorial Division as, currently, it doesn’t have any rescue teams.

Presently, microchips are installed on leopards to check if a particular one was trapped in the past. Why don’t you install transmitting chips to check on their movement?
If it’s possible to have a transmitter on the leopards along with the microchips, we will surely think about it.