All private hotels within 5km of national parks and sanctuaries in India will have to pay a cess which would be used for the upkeep of these wildlife hotspots, the Union environment ministry has decided.
As per a report in TOI, the ministry has asked state governments to notify the cess by the end of this year. The Centre, relaxing its earlier stand, has allowed state governments to decide what percentage of the annual turnover of the hotels will be charged as cess.
The PM's Tiger Task Force had recommended a 30% cess. The move is part of ecotourism guidelines proposed by the environment ministry which will be finalized after month-long open consultations. The guidelines also propose barring tourists from core areas of national parks and sanctuaries.
The move is bound to pinch the luxury hotels mushrooming around prominent tiger reserves. There are hotels in close proximity to tiger reserves that charge up to Rs 40,000 a night. The environment ministry earlier had warned some state governments that hotels around tiger reserves were choking wildlife zones and many such resorts were operating unregulated.
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