Odisha’s Similipal National Park Closed To Visitors For Heavy Rain

Baripada: Similipal National Park in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj has been closed to visitors temporarily due to heavy rain on Sunday.

According to sources, the Forest department decided to close the National Park after forest roads at several places turned muddy due to continuous rain making those unmotorable. Those stretches would pose difficulty for the visitors to move inside the forest areas of the park, they said.

As the area was still experiencing rainfall, the department will take a decision on reopening the national park to the visitors soon, the sources said.

It may be noted that the Similipal Tiger Reserve had remained closed for a month last year as local residents blocked its entry points at Jashipur on November 27 over their demand for essential amenities such as installation of towers, mobile network facilities, well-constructed roads, and concrete bridges within the park.

However, the park was reopened on December 27 following intervention of the officials of the Tiger Reserve.