At the end of February, Pugdundee Safaris organized a
walking jungle safari in India through
the famous Panna - Bandavgarh wildlife corridor. The intrepid walkers included
(among others) Christina Pochmursky, a
Toronto-based documentary filmmaker and writer/director at Walk the Talk Productions
Inc, and Iain Allan, founder, owner and chief guide of the Nairobi-based
company, Tropical Ice, who initiated the concept of walking safaris in East
Africa in 1978. Iain has been leading adventure safaris in East Africa ever
since.
The genesis of the walk was a desire to protect and promote
interest in a stretch of forest that links the Panna and Bandhavgarh National
Parks. This forested area could provide a vital wildlife corridor for tigers
and other wide-ranging species. Our aim was to explore the possibility of bringing
groups to Walk in the Footsteps (or pugmarks) of the Tiger in the northern
Panna and southern Shyamgiri corridors. The reason ? Because well-managed,
low-volume tourism can generate not only income, but also a sense of ownership
among locals through revenue-sharing, which can help to conserve the region. In
addition, small groups of people walking regularly through the corridor will act
as wildlife patrols and ultimately benefit the ecosystem and the tiger. Left to
itself, the area will probably lose much of its forest cover over the next few
decades.
Ajit Rana at Ken
River Lodge and Jonathan Peach, an experienced safari guide based at Kanha Earth Lodge spent several days
exploring the corridor area marking out possible routes and campsites. Staff
and managers from all Pugdundee’s lodges pitched in, making it a truly pan Pugdundee
venture.
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