A tourist tent at Masai Mara

Guwahati, June 15: For a trip to Masai Mara game reserve, you will no longer need a Kenyan visa.

The luxury and thrill of African safari will soon be rolled out in the untamed wilds of the Karbi Anglong.

A project initiated by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) with help from a Nairobi-based tourism agency is set to bring the highly successful Kenyan model of eco-tourism to Karbi Anglong.

The executive director of WTI, Vivek Menon, and the chairman of the Nairobi-based safari company, Donald Young, toured Karbi Anglong this week to chart out the modalities of project.

Young has been a profession safari guide for 25 years and a highly respected one too.

Like in Kenya, the WTI will engage local people in protection of wildlife while the safari company — Newland, Tarlton & Co — will employ them in tourism-related jobs.

The tourism project will initially include a tribal Karbi village and the famous hot water spring at Garampani in Nambar reserve forest.

The divisional forest officer of Karbi Anglong (East) J.N. Hazarika, said youngsters living in and around Garampani will be taken to Kenya’s game reserves for “on-the-spot” training in hospitality.

Young of Newland, Tarlton & Co has explained the village council members of Karbi Anglong that a select group of villagers would be taken to Nairobi to work with professionals of the company in the game reserves of Africa.

By the time the game reserve opens in Karbi Along, WTI will have a group of trained local hands for the project.

A Centre for Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, on the lines of the one at Bokakhat in Golaghat district near Kaziranga game sanctuary may also be built in Phuloni area of Karbi Anglong under the project.

The Assam co-ordinator of WTI, Rathin Barman, said there has always been a demand for an animal rescue and rehabilitation centre in Karbi Anglong.

Forest officials feel that not just animals, the Kenyan model of eco-tourism would also help protect the greens.

“When local people get involved in tourism projects, timber smuggling, which is rampant in the district, would definitely come to an end,” he said.