A meeting was held at the Forest Department Training Centre at Valparai in Coimbatore district under the chairmanship of MLA. Anaimalai Tiger Reserve Cell Director Parva Teja, hotel owners in Valparai and drivers' association participated in the meeting.
Coimbatore: The general public in Valparai knows how to behave by looking at wild animals. But the officials said that the tourists do not know how to behave with wild animals and that the ban on tourists from going beyond 6 pm will be consulted and notified.
Valparai in Coimbatore district attracts a large number of tourists from different parts of the country. A few days ago, the forest department had put up a notice board at the Aliyar checkpoint stating that tourists would be allowed to visit Valparai from 7 am to 6 pm.
The drivers' association in Valparai, the hotel owners' association and the residents' association in Valparai demanded that the notification issued by the forest department that the livelihood of all those who depend on tourism would be affected as the notice board had drastically reduced the number of tourists coming to Valparai.
Following this, Valparai MLA Amul Kandasamy presided over the function in the presence of Anaimalai Tiger Reserve Cell Director Parva Teja. A meeting was held at the Attakatti Forest Department Training Centre in Valparai where the association of hotel owners' drivers' association participated.
According to the forest department, the movement of wild animals is on the rise and after six o'clock the wild animals are walking along the roadsides to drink water. This could lead to man-wildlife conflict when tourists come and tourists are harassing wild animals, they said.
Therefore, the number of people going to Valparai should be reduced after 6 o'clock. The general public in Valparai knows how to behave by looking at wild animals. But tourists do not know how to behave towards wild animals and a ban on tourists from going beyond 6 pm will be consulted and notified, they said.