M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, March 26: Betla National Park will now be closed every Tuesday for the upkeep of the park and to envisage a better look for the tourists. An order to this effect has been conveyed to the Range Officer of Betla by the Deputy Director North Division of the tiger reserve Palamu on March 23.
The Deputy Director North division of the tiger reserve Palamu, P Jena has asked Ranger Shankar Ram to enforce the closure of the Betla National Park very strictly every Tuesday.
The decision to close all tiger reserves in the country which are 50 plus for ‘one day in a week’ preferably Tuesday was taken at the 22nd meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority held at Bandipur Tiger Reserve Karnataka on 3.1.2023.
This meeting was chaired by Bhupender Yadav Minister of environment, forest and climate change of the government of India who is the chairman of the NTCA also wherein it was decided to close tiger reserves for one day a week for the maintenance and upkeep of the tiger reserves across the country.
The Assistant Inspector General of the forest, NTCA Md Sajid Sultan in his letter dated 1.3.2023 addressed to all the Chief Wildlife Wardens of the tiger reserve states in the country, has asked for the implementation of the closure of the tiger reserves every Tuesday in every week. It comes to roughly 4 days of closure of the tiger reserves in a month throughout the year.
This every Tuesday closure of the tiger reserve is in addition to the 3 months closure enforced earlier to give wildlife space and privacy to mate and live in peace. Earlier, Betla National Park remains closed for 3 months beginning in July as then it opens on the 1st of October every year. This Tuesday’s closure is for infrastructure rebuild and also for tourists offloading on the tiger reserve.
