It is not just the hoteliers, guides or tourists who have benefitted after tourism started in the Ranthambore national park but lives of scores of ordinary people staying in the district have never been the same ever since the first Gypsy came into the tiger terrain.

Shamim Khan is still proud of the first jeep that he had purchased 30 years back. Three dacades down the line, his family has 70-odd vehicles, including Gypsies and canters, which fetch him Rs 1,880 and Rs 5,700 respectively per trip inside the park.

Jairam recollects only three other families in his Shamota village, 12 kms from Ramthambore, who are engaged in black pottery. Earning close to Rs 90,000 a year through his craft, he feeds his family of 12. An ordinary potter, Jairam, who earlier only made basic earthenware, switched to innovative black pottery after demands from tourists started pouring in. He now even sells his pottery in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and Bangalore.

These people are worried of their fate if the Safari is banned following the Supreme Court directives.

"The benefits of tourism are not limited to a few major hotels, but are also reaped by the local people. The lives of many local people associated with anti-forestry activities like illegal grazing, wood cutting, mining and poaching have transformed due to this green industry that has provided them with alternative jobs," says conservation biologist Dharmendra Khandal of Tiger Watch as per a report in ET.

In a report that Khandal prepared with a group of students, he highlights many salient aspects of tourism in Ranthambore national park and the people associated with the industry. The report narrates stories of people whose lives have changed for the better because of tourism.

From an odd travel agent who was drawn to Sawai Madhopur because of the flourishing tourism trade, to hundreds of handicraft store owners, workshops customizing jeeps and canters for safaris, computer professionals required to maintain records at hotels and resorts, the grocery stores and even the tea stalls by the road-side, virtually the face of the entire city changed after tourism got a nod here.

Vishnu Kumar started his 'Indian Computer Education Centre' in 1993 after he saw the opportunity in training people in computers looking at the numerous computers arriving in Sawai Madhopur. Gopal Lal Nama's art, which consists of block printing pictures of tiger on sarees, got a new lease life. Jugraj Mongiya, found a new source of livelihood as a gardener with the forest department. The list goes on.

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