The agitating tourist guides and tourist vehicle owners on Monday accused Bandhavgarh National Park management of flouting norms by sending all kinds of vehicles inside the reserve and deploying forest staff for ferrying tourists instead of monitoring big cats after they went on strike.
Half a dozen guides continued their indefinite hunger strike outside the National Park as deadlock continued between the agitators and Park Field Director Mradul Pathak on Monday.
Accusing Pathak of severe high-handedness, abusive and insulting behavior, 70 tourist guides had started their indefinite strike on Sunday only to be joined by tourist vehicle owners later in the day.
Around 70 tourist guides and 171 tourist vehicle owners have stalled their tourism operations on the several demands including transfer of the Field Director. Several big cats have died after the officer assumed office but these cases are closed terming them natural deaths, a communiqué from the union said.
Besides accusing Pathak of abusing and insulting them, the protesters have claimed that Pathak was running the park at his whims and fancies and the park administration cooks up stories of its choice in case of any big cat’s death.
“Last year, a tigress was missing in the park and park management only swung into action after we alerted them,” said Rajesh Dwivedi, president MP Wildlife Guides Union. Dwivedi alleged that park management had later recovered the carcass of tigress but claimed that it was killed in territorial fight which never looked the reason.
The Field Director had started sending forest staffers with the tourists inside the park even before our strike started, said Dwivedi alleging that almost entire staff has been pressed into tourist service compromising the safety of the big cats.
As the tourist vehicle owners have joined strike, the park management is hiring whatever vehicle is available and is sending inside the park in violation of norms, he said adding they won’t budge unless the officer was removed.