Panna tiger reserve opened for tourists

BHOPAL: Panna Tiger Reserve in eastern Madhya Pradesh was opened for tourists two days after four armed dacoits were flushed out from it, officials said.

"Four armed men were noticed in the reserve spread over an area of 543 sq km on Tuesday after which the place was closed for the second half and the miscreants were flushed out from the area in the night," Reserve field director R S Murthy said.

"We did not take a chance on tourist security and closed the park in the second half of Tuesday," he said.

"The forest staffers and the Madhya Pradesh police in a joint operation flushed out the armed men," the field director added.

Both entries from Hinotha and Madhla gates to the reserve in Panna district were thrown open to the tourists from Wednesday, he said.

Murthy said that there was a normal visitors influx to the reserve since Wednesday, denying that the tourists were frightened to visit the place which led to the decline in their number.

"Right now I do not have figures of the tourists who had visited after Tuesday's incident. The tourist influx was normal," he said.

Panna reserve, which had more than 30 big cats around four year back, became devoid of tigers last year following which two felines and a tiger were translocated to this place to revive stripped-animal population.