At Tadoba, four safari drivers make a clean, quiet beginning
At Tadoba, four safari drivers make a clean, quiet beginning
Of the 300 safari vehicles at the tiger reserve in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district, four have converted their Gypsies from petrol to battery-operated vehicles, embracing a clean and quiet initiative that is also monetarily more rewarding, said a reserve official.
Each safari vehicle carries six tourists and makes two trips into the buffer and core zones of the reserve for tiger sightings every day, said another official.
“We converted our vehicle (to electric) first and then tested it for three months. After satisfactory results, we tried to persuade the Gypsy-owning villagers to go green. Four of them were ready for this change,” said Kushagra Pathak, deputy director of the Tadoba-Andhari reserve.
The senior official said they provided a soft loan (50 per cent of the required amount) to the Gypsy owners which they have to repay with a “nominal rate of interest”.
The four Gypsies were converted into battery-operated vehicles and they started ferrying tourists in the first week of December, he said.
As per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory authority under the Union environment ministry, it was proposed to run battery-operated vehicles to reduce emissions inside the tiger reserve, he added.
Baig said he now doesn’t have to visit Chandrapur, some 30 km away, to fill the tank and come back with cans of petrol.
“Every Gypsy driver gets ₹2,700 for one safari. I used to spend nearly ₹1,000 for fuel on each safari. Now that my vehicle is electric, the expenses have come down to about ₹150 a day. Also, I charge my vehicle at my home,” he said.
Baig said his Gypsy is charged through the night or between two trips. The e-vehicle can cover 120 km on a single charge, he said.
But Baig loves the noiseless operation of the vehicle.
“Tourists on my Gypsy can interact with the guide and enjoy surround sounds without any interruption (of engine noise). Many animals that are shy run away due to the noise of the petrol-run vehicle. That’s not the case with my Gypsy,” he said.
The safari driver said tourists now prefer e-Gypsies and ask for such vehicles to take them around.
“I got a soft loan of ₹4.75 lakh at 4 per cent interest per annum from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. I have to repay it in three years,” he added.
