Tree top houses for tourists in Nandhor Wildlife Sanctuary

DEHRADUN : On the lines of USA, South America, Nandhor Wildlife Sanctuary has also opened tree houses for tourists. States such as Kerala and Karnatka too have built tree houses to promote wildlife tourism. There are five such houses in Nandhor and also one each in Jalasar and Sharda. These are one room wooden premises built some 30 ft from the ground, connected with a staircase.
The houses are situated close to the water bodies. The location facilitate opportunities for the picturesque view of wildlife drinking or bathing into water.

Chander Shekhar Joshi, divisional forest officer said, “These tree houses double up mainly as watch towers for the forest staff so that they can keep vigil in the surrounding areas and stay there if required. These are also used for the staff to store fire fighting equipment during fire incidents.”

Prakash Arya, deputy director of Nandhor Wildlife sanctuary told TOI that the tourists are allowed to stay there in the day time to get view of wildlife as the house have been provided with windows on two sides. However since it will not be stay there overnight so the tourists will have to return to the forest rest house at Nandhor WLS at night. The cost of one day and night stay will be around Rs 1200. “The concept of tree houses have become craze in USA and South Africa for serious wildlife enthusiasts. However it has not been experimented in Uttarakhand so far. We are ushering into this territory through our tree houses. At this juncture, it has not been opened online as well as we are yet to better our roads and other facilities in this regard,” he said.

Nandhor , which is spread over 269 sq km in Haldwani division was declared wildlife sanctuary in 2012. It has rich wildlife and biodiversity which include 25 species of mammals which include around 20 tigers, 50 elephants , leopards , Himalayan bear etc. There are 250 species of birds, 15 species of reptiles and 20 species of fishes alongwith 100 species of trees found in the area. Owing to the rich flora and fauna of this WLS, National Tiger Conservation Authority has recommended to upgrade the status of the WLS to tiger reserve.