Polythene menace hits Rajiv Tiger Reserve

FARHABAD: The polythene menace has reached the Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Reserve.With the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department Corporation Limited starting its eco-tourism project -- Tiger Wilds -- and with about 50 people visiting the new facility each day, officials in charge of the project say polythene is a part of life now.
Though food, drinks and even cigarettes are procured by the staff at Tiger Wilds and served to tourists, people carry snacks or other items in polythene bags and dispose the empty packs in the forest.The area in the vicinity of Tiger Wilds is now littered with polythene bags entangled in bushes or simply strewn around, apart from water bottles. Asked how the tourism department planned to curb the polythene menace in the tiger reserve, a senior eco-tourism department official told The Times of India on Friday that polythene could not be prohibited as "it is a need."
"We tell people not to litter, but there is precious little we can do if they do.We, however, have engaged a person to pick up the plastic bags from the four-acre fenced area of the resort and the eight-kilometre drive from the main road to the Tiger Wilds," he said. When contacted, a senior forest department official chose to wash his hands off the entire issue. "When we handed over the area to the ecotourism department, we gave them a list of dos and don''ts.
One of the don''ts was not to allow polythene bags inside because deer, sambar or nilgais would consume them and die," he said. This, the forest department official, said would set off serious problems for both the forest as well as the eco-tourism departments. The official warned that if the eco-tourism project does not implement the dos and dont''s strictly, it would not be too long before strict action would be initiated against those responsible for deterioration of the conditions in the reserve.