Jawai has long operated outside the structured safari circuits that govern most of India’s wildlife destinations. Leopards, Rabari communities, luxury camps, and independent operators have shared this granite landscape in Rajasthan’s Pali district with minimal formal oversight. That is now changing.
Following a Rajasthan High Court order prompted by a public interest litigation on ecological pressures, the state forest department has drafted a Standard Operating Procedure to regulate tourism across the Jawai leopard landscape. The court has directed immediate implementation, reinforcing existing bans on night safaris and drone use while tightening controls on construction and commercial expansion in leopard habitats.
Under the proposed framework, only vehicles registered with a newly formed coordination committee will be permitted to operate, each fitted with GPS tracking approved by the forest department. Night safaris, wildlife baiting, noise disturbance, and drone use near leopard caves are among the activities classified as serious violations. The rules will extend beyond forest land to revenue land, private properties, and community grazing areas that overlap with leopard movement corridors.
No new construction or fresh tourism licences will be issued until further orders. The court has also asked the state to examine whether Jawai should be formally declared a sanctuary, a move that could fundamentally reshape how tourism and conservation coexist here.
