In Bihar, tiger reserves, national parks, and sanctuaries will remain closed

Friday, June 11, 2021

While sticking to an order issued by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Bihar state environment, forests and climate change department has recently come to a decision to keep Valimiki Tiger Reserve in West Champaran and Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park in Patna closed for all visitors and tourism related activities till further notice.

Also, Bihar forest department has requested the staff at VTR to stay inside the tiger reserve. This would stop the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday, the NTCA has requested all states to shut down tiger reserves, national parks, and sanctuaries till its further notice mentioning that Covid-19 infection has caused death of a lioness inside a Chennai zoo.

“As per the news reports, a lioness in Vandalur zoo, Chennai is suspected to have died due to Covid-19 infection and several other lions of the same zoo have been tested positive for SARS COV-2… for preventing the possible transmission of Covid-19 from human beings to wild tigers and other wildlife, all Tiger Reserves under your jurisdiction need to be closed for tourism activities until further orders,” the NTCA order reads.

To quote Dipak Kumar Singh, the Principal Secretary (forests department), “Following receipt of the order from NTCA, a correspondence has been made for formal closure of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR), which is the only tiger reserve in Bihar. Besides, priority of vaccination of the staff against the virus, health of the animals in the tiger reserve is also being monitored regularly.”

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