Nine months back, the decision to introduce a wildlife safari in Jhalana Reserve Forest was made. This Wednesday leopard sightings at Jhalana were started, bringing this wildlife reserve to the world platform.
Positioned right in the center of Jaipur city, Jhalana is known to be the best site for leopard sightings during all timings of the safari, which have been booked up to March 2017. It is being said that the proposal for this wildlife safari was pending at the time of the Congress government. Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister, Rajasthan finalized the decision as a gift to the wildlife lovers.
Jhalana forest spreads in an area of 24 square kilometers and is located eastwards of Jaipur. It is home to around 14 to 15 leopards, which are quite visible to the wildlife lovers who come here, and that too from a distance of just 10-20 feet. According to statistics, the sightings of the daunting big cats have gone down by 75 percent on a global level. Jhalana, however, can be a great example of the conservation of leopards for others.
Sumit Juneja is one of those who offers gypsy safari in Jhalana. Praising this forest, he said, “If there is the tiger in Ranthambhore, there is a Leopard in Jhalana. This has been a major plus for Jhalana as unlike anywhere else in the world, you can see leopards so close by.
Travel agents and social media have put Jhalana safaris on the global map. I have back-to-back bookings right up to March. Most of the tourists are from Mumbai and down south and few groups from overseas.”
The forest department released some statistics, which stated that between March and November 2016, the footfall of tourists was 21,747 paying a total revenue of INR 15, 10,535. Formerly, the Jhalana forest did not add even a single penny as revenue to the forest department.
Now, to promote wildlife safari in Jhalana, 3500 private vehicles have been deployed. It was quite an interesting thing that around 390 students who lived quite nearby, were not aware of this forest. After this initiative, they became quite aware of the significance of the conservation of wildlife. In the November month, the number of foreign tourists, which earlier was around 1-3 has gone up to 30.
M K Aggarwal, DCF, Jaipur, informed, “It’s been a year of experimentation for us. Earlier, there were no regulations for leopard sightings and people could randomly walk in. But once these safaris were given a go-ahead by CM, things had to be put in place. Also, entry rates had to be revised owing to the heavy rush of visitors. Now, we have also reduced the number of vehicles to 20, since it’s a small forest area. Moreover, a lot of things need to be put in place still.”
He further added that the authorities are planning to upgrade and add more facilities to Jhalana Wildlife Reserve for the comfort of the visitors. Some of such comforts that will be starting next year include a ticket kiosk with an electronic machine, route signage, and online booking.
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