After Etawah’s lion safari, the city of Nawabs will soon get a tiger safari. The Yogi Adityanath government has set the ball rolling for the same.
The tiger safari will come up in 5,000-acre Kukrail forest area of Lucknow. The estimated cost of the project is at around Rs 400 crore. Besides tigers, the safari will also have leopards, different species of deer and other wild animals. A high-level meeting comprising Forest Minister Dara Singh Chauhan, Principal Secretary (forest) Renuka Kumar, Secretary (forest) Sanjay Singh and other senior officials of the department took part in it.
According to forest officials, the project will be completed in three phases. The first phase will see development of a bio-diversity park to promote ecotourism and a fun zone for children. The second phase will be developed as safari and rescue centre for tigers, leopards and deer. The rescue centre will inhabit the tigers and wild animals who venture out of forests into villages and other areas. The third phase will bring black buck, beer and other exotic animals into the safari. The safari will help to prevent man-animal conflict that has been going up gradually in various parts of the state recently.
According to principal chief conservator of forests S.K. Upadhaya, a department project report will be soon made in this regard.
Interestingly, this is not the first time such a project is being mooted by the state government. About more than three decades ago in 1983-84, a plan was chalked out to make a tiger safari in Lucknow. Many meetings were held in this regard, and it was decided to be developed into a breeding centre for tigers.
