Bureaucrat's "Behave Like Animals" Advice To Tourists. What It Means

An officer from the Indian Forest Service shared online images of a range officer cleaning up litter left by tourists, emphasizing the need for tourists visiting forests to "act like animals," as animals do not leave behind trash. 

Parveen Kaswan brought attention to the issue by showcasing photos of a range officer and a team diligently collecting discarded chip packets and plastic bottles in a forest.

Mr Kaswan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "Dukchen Bhutia is our range officer. Went to field with a group. Found a lot of trash thrown by tourists and decided to collect all. She is showing the way. In Forest behave like animals, they don't spread the trash." 

See the post here:

Dukchen Bhutia is our range officer. Went to field with a group. Found a lot of trash thrown by tourists and decided to collect all. She is showing the way.

In Forest behave like animals, they don't spread the trash. pic.twitter.com/HLRbkPI8Mz

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) January 10, 2024

Mr Kaswan's post soon went viral and received an array of comments from the concerned citizens. 

Commenting on the post, a user wrote, "This is probably one of the reasons why Lakshadweep and Andaman needs to be protected from tourism... We kind of lack discipline with regards to waste management."

Another user wrote, "I have one idea, cleanliness, it must start from people, Esp early age. So for the initiative, every school and college,  make a cleanliness program at Saturday, all students must participate, to clean nearby park, beach, temples & tourist places. So everyone got the awareness."

The third user commented, "All sorts of disposable, single-use plastic and even tetra packs & packed snacks or food should be strictly prohibited to be carried while on a tour ( except for use in hotels & resort's or home stay)"

"There should be fines for violators and mandatory fees for environmental protection/clean up which should be used to keep clean forests," the fourth user wrote. 

"It all starts at home, society and school. It's sad watching such behaviour," the fifth user wrote.