Chamarajanagar: With people driving through the Bandipur National Park dumping plastic covers and empty liquor bottles in its grounds and feeding deer and monkeys with junk food, fed up forest officials are now handing out handbills to visitors spelling out the dos on don’ts of behaviour in a wildlife area and warning of a penalty for violations.
A garbage collector, Ayub who collects the rubbish from Bandipur once a week, says he finds nearly 100 empty liquor bottles, a huge number of plastic covers and about 16 kgs of packaged drinking water bottles in the park every time.
With no end in sight to people’s callous disregard for the animals under their protection in the sanctuary, forest officials are now handing out the handbills at the Melkammanahalli check-post. Range Forest Officer Puttaswamy, says the handbills strictly tell visitors not to feed animals, stop sounding the horn while in the park, not to litter, take no pictures or stop vehicles, and not to smoke and drink while in the park. They are also advised to drive at a speed of 35/kmph.
The handbills warn that violating these guidelines will attract penalty of Rs 1,000 from the park officials. Park director, Ambady Madhav reveals the handbills are collected from visitors after they have read them when exiting from Bandipur.
“We plan more measures in coming days to educate travellers on preserving the sanctity of the forests. The road via Bandipur to Ooty is the busiest , but we also plan to hand out the bills on another road through the park which connects Gundlupet with Wayanad,” he added.
