India's Haryana state to study UAE's safari parks

Hoping to learn from the UAE’s experience in jungle and desert safaris, Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Haryana, is in the northern emirates on a two-day visit.

He will visit Dubai Safari Park and Sharjah Safari with a team of high-level officials from Haryana's Tourism and Wildlife Department, officials in the state capital, Chandigarh, said.

Haryana is near the national capital of New Delhi and is home to 180 species of birds, 29 species of aquatic animals, 57 species of butterflies, 15 species of mammals and many reptiles. It has no safari parks on a scale that could harness the state’s wildlife resources into tourist attractions.

The Aravalli Range of hills, rich in flora, fauna and wildlife, also runs partly through Haryana. It has a 1,600 km-long and 5 km-wide green ecological corridor.

Encouraged by the success of Sharjah Safari, which opened in February this year, and the older and well-known attraction of Dubai Safari Park, Khattar had recently suggested the idea of jungle safaris and tourist-oriented trekking in Haryana to India’s Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav.

There are no national parks in the Aravallis part of Haryana.

Yadav is also now in Dubai to attend the World Green Economy Summit, which began yesterday and an associated Ministerial Roundtable for Green Economy.

Khattar is using the opportunity offered by his visit to meet potential UAE investors in his state, officials accompanying him said.

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