Bandipur: Video by actor Dhanveer was taken during the official safari time, clarify officials

Team Udayavani, Oct 24, 2020, 2:07 PM IST

Bengaluru: Days after a video of actor Dhanveer Gowda and his friends on a night safari at Bandipur Tiger Reserve went viral, the forest department official Naveen Kumar on Saturday clarified that video was taken during the official safari time.

Reportedly, the group spotted a tiger during the safari, and one of them circulated it on a WhatsApp group after captioning it night safari.

After the video went viral on social media platforms the forest department officials had asked actor Dhanveer Gowda to appear before them for the investigation.

“The video was made during the official safari time, i.e., before 6.40 pm. But when the actor shared the video he captioned it as night safari and this created confusion and also irked environmentalists, who asked, how could the actor go on a safari during the night, as it is prohibited?,” said Naveen after interrogating Dhanveer.

In his defence, Dhanveer said, “I went for the safari at 4.30 pm and as I was coming out at 6.30 pm, I saw the tiger at 6.31 pm. No flashlights were used, they were the headlights of the jeep. It was dark because we were inside the forest.”

The safari timings at Bandipur is from 6.30 am to 8.30 am and from 3 pm to 5.30 pm.