Government Refused BBC to Film in Tiger Reserves for Five years

As per the Tuesday reports, Government has Banned the BBC to film in tiger reserves for five years as its documentary on Kaziranga National park misrepresented the immunity provided to forest staff as a “Shoot-to-kill” policy.

Anil Madhav Dave, the Environment Minister said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that there were several “inconsistencies” between the “synopsis provided by the BBC producer and the final documentary released for airing. The government is aware of a documentary released by the BBC in which they misrepresented the immunity provided to forest personnel under section 197 of CrPC as ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy. The BBC has been disallowed from filming in tiger reserves for a period of five years. The permission granted before making the film included the condition for preview before its release. However, the documentary was not submitted to the authorities for a preview”.

Recently India’s Tiger conservation agency asked the Ministry of External Affairs to not to allow BBC for filming in protected areas for five years. They claimed that the documentary produced by it distorted the government’s anti- poaching strategy.

The NTCA or National Tiger Conservation Authority had earlier suggested blacklisting the BBC producer for “grossly erroneous” reporting, while issuing a show cause notice asking the broadcaster as to why permissions granted to it should not be revoked after the documentary termed the government’s anti -poaching policy at Kaziranga as one of “shoot to kill”.
Assam government had taken a series of steps to curb poaching at the Kaziranga National Park.

BBC, whose South Asia Bureau made the documentary titled, ‘Killing for Conservation’, said it has not received any notification of a ban by Indian Authorities.