Our wildlife needs good branding

National Tourism Awardee, Best Tourist Guide (Odisha), Tapan Kumar Mishra speaks about the gap that lies between India’s wildlife offerings and how it is currently being promoted – within India and the rest of the world. He adds that a social welfare scheme must also be developed to retain well-qualified and experienced guides.

We lack professionalism and side-line environmental issues while operating wildlife tours. It’s a matter of great surprise that we look for BS-VI vehicles on the road but don’t care in case of vehicles used for jungle safaris. We should be more environmentally sensitive in this case. Most of the national parks in India operate jeeps that are more than 15 years old.

Moreover, a limited number of tourists and safaris should be allowed per day into a national park. Unfortunately, for the sake of revenue there are no limitations which in turn disturbs the wildlife. There is also a need for tourists to be wildlife and environment friendly, and accompanying guides should ensure this.

The government does offer specialised courses for guides and naturalists. There is a special provision of eco-guides in many states. In Odisha, there are eco-guides at most of the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. We have such guides deployed at Chilika lagoon, too. There is an award at the national level for Best Wildlife Guide. The good part is that the government of India has hiked the guide fee in two years.

Need for better branding

Branding and aggressive marketing strategy are seriously lacking when it comes to promoting wildlife tourism in India. We must focus on new markets along with traditional source markets. If Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand can bank upon tourism as their major source of revenue, then why not India? What do we lack in India in terms of tourism products? We can scale the Himalayas in the summer and other destinations in the winter. We should and can offer India as a 365-day destination for both domestic and international tourists.

Trained guides

The government should also look at training the guides seriously as we must not forget that guides are the ‘cultural ambassadors’ of the country. A tourist sees a country through the eyes of a guide. A well-trained and experienced guide is definitely an asset to the industry. I am privileged that a lot of times I get repeat clients.

The government should therefore focus on professional training. The minimum qualification to get selected for guide training should be graduation. Last but not the least, the government should retain well-qualified and experienced guides by extending some social welfare schemes to them. It’s a pity that there’s no such scheme for them.