The forest department on Tuesday announced a halt in tourist trips from Jainti to Mahakal, a popular destination in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Alipurduar district, citing frequent movements of elephants on the 2.5km-long route.

Tourists hire cars to travel from Jainti to reach Mahakal, a religious spot in the Buxa hills.

“In other areas of the BTR, tourists can avail themselves of car safaris twice a day. But they could go to Mahakal at any time of the day. However, because of consistent elephant movements along the stretch between Jainti and Mahakal, the travel has been stopped for an indefinite period from today, for the safety of tourists,” said a forester.

He said as the monsoon was ahead and one had to cross the Jayanti river, the safari was stopped to avert any unfortunate incident in the event of a flash flood.

A couple of years ago, nine persons were stuck at Mahakal — a hilly cave where Hindu deities are venerated — because of landslides and flash floods. The administration undertook a rescue operation to bring them back.

“Also, the road is not in good condition and as the MCC (model code of conduct) is in force, we couldn’t repair it. This is another reason for the bar on tourists' visit to Mahakal,” the forest officer said.

Suvojoyti Basu, who is associated with tourism and based in Jainti, said less than a month was left for the annual closure of the BRT for three months. Every year, reserve forests in north Bengal remain closed to tourists from June 16 to September 15.

“Many of us bought new vehicles for car safaris and hoped for a decent business during the summer. But after this decision by the forest department, we fear the footfall of tourists would decline,” said Basu.