Adventure & Wildlife Magazine - Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 | Page 20

ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
and we will be running curated treks as well as
night treks here.
A&W: Are there any guidelines set on safety norms,
operators criteria and standards?
Priyank Kharge: Yes, the department of youth
services takes care of that. We have a General Thimayya
National Academy of Adventure (and sports). So all the
licenses are given through this institution and it’s well
curated so that at the end of the day we do not allow any
unauthorized trekking routes, unauthorized trekking
camps, night safaris, or adventure sports to be run
without license. So we try to regulate them. he idea is
not to have the complete license-raj over there. The idea
is they just need to come forward to take these licenses.
So we are ready to collaborate with these people as well.
“Karnataka was the first to start
an eco resort in the country through
Jungle Lodges way back in 1980s.
Kabini was our first foray into
adventure and wildlife tourism and now
we have 21 resorts under the banner of
Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) catering
to wildlife and nature tourism.”
Priyank Kharge: As I mentioned, yesterday we had
a meeting on that so we are quite open to that, as a
part of our initiative it’s just not that we are trying to
do only the wildlife and adventure tourism outside
Bangalore. Within Bangalore also there are lot of
A&W: Fine and would you like to collaborate with places we can do that, namely Ramanagara, Nandi hills
ATOAI that is The Adventure Tour Operators where we are trying to do whole host of things. It will
Association of India. The south chapter is going to start also go to be a green initiative from our end. So we are
promoting green tourism, green urban tourism also
in some time…
in those circuits. Yesterday we spoke about the aero
Priyank Kharge: Why shouldn’t we collaborate? We sports whether its paragliding, hand gliding, we are
as a government are open to any collaboration that will trying to see how we can kick start it. If there are some
ensure that the ecosystem flourishes. For us the larger associations which really want to do those things then
picture is to ensure that the nature and wildlife and we are happy to evaluate that. That includes sky
adventure enthusiasts experience and explore Karnataka diving as well. We have Jakkur and HAL airports.
better. And so if it’s going to come through private people, We can collaborate.
our policy allows that already. So our policies are one of
the best policies in India. So, public private initiatives have A&W: It’s heartening to know the tiger conservation has
always been a part of that policy. It is not a deterrent at all. paid off and in fact we are number one in the country,
there is a good increase in the number of tigers in the
A&W: Are you going to add more destinations for reserves of Karnataka, but the increase in population
the adventure enthusiasts in the immediate future? shall increase the man-animal conflict, what are your
plans on handling this problem?
Priyank Kharge: Yes we are doing a recce and survey on
most of these destinations so it’s just not new destinations.
It’s just yesterday that I went to Nandi hills to see how
we can ensure that we can participate in aero sports. And
we are also getting some proposals to encourage beach
tourism and also how we can make a international surfing
destination in Mangalore. And at the Dev bagh beach
also we are trying to do some sports. So adding new
destinations is always a constant endeavor of any
Department of tourism.
Priyank Kharge: See man-animal conflict I think is
going to go on for a longer time. So the government of
Karnataka is quite serious about trying to give the
animals their share of rights here. In fact we are very proud
of the fact that we host the highest number of tigers in
India and also highest number of Asiatic elephants . So
man-animal conflict is not just with tigers but also with
elephants. So we have come up with elephant corridors,
we have got a lot of tiger reserves, we have got leopard
reserves, we have got the hornbill reserves. So its not just
limited to tiger alone.
A&W: Incidentally, we had this hang-gliding association
of India which we started about 30 years back. And we
used to do it from Nandi hills. So after we stopped it, it A&W: So what if you start something to educate the
didn’t take off again, when we grew out of it. So I think communities around the periphery about this particular
thing and how to handle it. Would it help?
some academy like this will help promoting the sport.
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Vol 1|Issue 5-6|Nov 16 - Jan 17