When we go for jeep safari drives, we will be always accompanied by 2 additional person. One is safari vehicle driver and second person will be safari guide. Here in Madhya Pradesh, for all wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves, company of safari guide is mandatory. Even if we will go for a nature walk or walking safari, we will be assigned one safari guide on mandatory basis. At some safari destinations like Satpura national park, some more activity options like boat safari and canoe rides are also offered. Even in these activities, guide is mandatory. These safari guides assist the guest by tracking animals, decides where to stop, when to move, show the birds or animals to guests, inform them names and behavior of wildlife. Apart from all these, it is duty of safari guide to check if guests are following the rules or not. Also help them if their is any emergency. Thus they plays multiple roles and their presence is vital, during all types of safari activities.
Safari guides are local villagers with basic education and training. They are purely natives of that place thus their natural knowledge about that forest is best. During creation of tiger reserves, many villages were relocated. It has been experienced in almost all the tiger reserves. Leaving your ancestors place is indeed a painful phase for anyone. It is just like uprooting a plant from one place to another and such activity sometimes proves successful but sometimes proves destructive to some families. Considering these facts, forest department tries to compensate them in many ways. They have set the native person as foremost eligibility criteria for applying to become safari guide. Among the locals, first priority is given to those who are relocated due to declaration of tiger reserve. This is how their rights on forest are protected and offered respectable source of income, for survival.
Selected safari guides are trained through various workshops in which they are given information about frequently seen animals, birds, commonly seen trees etc. At the same time some documentary notes are also provided them for self study. During the off-season (July to Sept), workshops are conducted to refresh their knowlede and provide some added information, about new safari rules, personality development tips etc. Rest of the development depends on their own hard work, self study and devotion.
Roster system gives each safari guide an equal opportunity to serve the guests as here each safari vehicle (with guest) is assigned to each safari guide in a sequence. This ensures that each safari guide will get chance to serve and earn his livelihood. From equal opportunity point of view, it is a justified system but it doesn't ensures more chance to more skilled guide. Many times we find that our safari guide is not very skillful or useful, during safari drive. Due to roster system, neither hotel nor travel agent could help in such case as guides are assigned as per roster system thus all blame is shifted on our bad luck. In order to cover this risk, some luxury lodges provide their own naturalist to accompany their guest, against a naturalist fee.
Safari guide and naturalist are two different person who perform almost same task but in different ways. They also have different rights and obligations. Thus we are required to understand the difference between safari guide and lodge naturalist.
| Title | Safari Guide | Naturalist |
| Eligibility | Natives of the tiger reserve area. Outsiders are not allowed to apply. | Anyone can apply with good knowledge of wildlife, command over English language and have personal interest in service. |
| Belonging | They are local people only. | They can be local or outsiders. |
| Governing body | They are governed through a roster system, controlled by forest department (park management) | They are governed as per rules of their respective resort or lodge. They can register themselves with park management to visit with guest as naturalist. |
| Payment | Guides are paid by park management as per laid fee schedule. They are paid as per safaris they have attended. | They are mostly salaried people thus paid by their lodge or hotel management team. |
| Fee system | At Madhya Pradesh national parks, guide fee is paid at park management ticket counter, at the time of safari. | Naturalist fee is paid to hotel or resort, as per their rule. Mostly it is collected in advance. |
| Cost | Safari guide fee is decided by park management thus it is normally less than naturalist fee. | Naturalist fee is decided by lodge management and mostly higher than safari guide. |
| Fee nature | It is a mandatory service thus fee is mandatory. | It is an optional service thus fee is optional. |
| Necessity | Safari guide is mandatory part of a safari drive. No vehicle can enter without guide. | Naturalist service is optional part of a safari drive. Safari vehicle can enter without naturalist. |
| Replacement | Safari guides are allocated by park management through a roster system thus once issued, they can't be easily changed. For replacement some national park have provision to pay additional replacement fee. Park management have discretionary power to allow or reject replacement request. | As they are decided by hotel management thus they can easily be changed or replaced, without any additional fee. |
| Rights & supremacy | They enjoys more rights and supremacy over lodge naturalist. They can decide route, how long to stop, when to move, where to get down from vehicle, where to go on nature call emergency etc. | Their rights are very limited. They have to work on consultation with the safari guide (park management ). They can't overlap the decision of forest safari guide. |
| Representation | Safari guide represents park management team. | Naturalist represents his/her safari lodge or hotel. |
| Education | Guide basic academic education and command over language is weak or very basic but their natural instincts and ground knowledge are excellent. | Their academic education level is high and possess better scientific knowledge. They have good command over English language. |
| Punishments | In case of any violation of rule they are issued notice first and punished by park management. | In case of any violation of rule or bad performance, they are punished by both park management and resort management. |
| Service repetition | As safari guides are governed by a roster system of park management thus it is possible that in next safari, we may not get the same guide, | As their service is managed by hotel management team thus it is possible that we will get the service of same naturalist in all our safari drives. |
| Pro Park Management | All safari guides are pro park management and don't care about the hotel from which guest is coming. Park management is also more biased towards them if any disagreement or dispute arise in between guide and naturalist, even when guest lodges complaints. | Naturalist is serving to his/her hotel thus they are more liable and sincere towards their lodge. They have to maintain balance between park rules and hotel rules. |
| Complaint Resolution | Guests can raise their complaints from park management. Due to leniency of park management, towards guides, it may be possible, complainer will not get any response or matter has been treated in very non-transparent way. Complainer will remain unsatisfied. | Guests can raise their complaints from hotel management. Here we can expect proper reply and transparency. Here complainer will be more satisfied. |
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