15 SUVs running riot in nature reserve on Mt. Tara: No wonder bears are seeking shelter in cities

The drivers of these vehicles entered the area, ignoring the signs indicating that this is a locality enjoying the first degree of protection

There's no end in sight to the unrestrained behavior of some individuals in the Tara National Park. Incidents are getting repeated more and more often in areas enjoying the first degree of protection. Cameras set up to monitor wildlife recorded about 15 off-road vehicles running riot in the Racanska Sljivovica reserve.

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The drivers of these vehicles entered the area, ignoring the signs indicating that this is a locality enjoying the first degree of protection.

"Obviously, it is not enough to many people that more than half of the park's area is in the third protection regime, which allows a more than liberal way of use, they also have to run wild in the localities of the first level of protection," representatives of the Tara National Park told RINA.

The locality of the first degree of protection Racanska Sljivovica covers an area of 17.81 hectares, which is located southwest of the Raca Canyon, in the area of the hamlet of Sljivovica. This is the habitat of numerous endangered and strictly protected species such as small and long-tailed owl, three-toed woodpecker, brown bear.

"When SUVs are driving around a nature reserve, it's no wonder that bears are seen in settlements, even in Bajana Basta itself. Apparently, unscrupulous savages, who think they are above the law and the state, are driving them out of the forest," the National Park officials added.

According to the Law on Nature Protection, the use of resources in the first degree protection regime is prohibited, that is, scientific research and monitoring of natural processes and controlled visits for educational, recreational and general cultural purposes are allowed with the consent of the Ministry.

The guard service of the protected area of the Tara National Park has sent an official letter to the Bajina Basta police station to provide data on the owners of the trespassing vehicles, based on the license plates caught on camera, in order to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against them.

"This is not an announcement, this is an appeal. An appeal to all - the competent institutions and bodies, the sane portion of the public and the whole society, that everyone should conscientiously do just the little that is within their power to preserve Tara, but also entire Serbia. Otherwise nothing can help us. Let's not allow national parks and protected areas in general to be just a dead letter," representatives of this National Park concluded.

(Telegraf.rs)