Two questions get mixed up when visitors look up Rajaji safari rules: what the reserve requires, which is published plainly, and what happens if you break one, where the official pages publish far less than people expect. This page keeps them apart, records what those pages omit about penalties, and closes with one bounded, dated section of general legal information about the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. It gives no legal advice and attaches no rupee figure to any visitor rule, because none is published.
Sources checked on 26 October 2026: the official jungle safari booking page, which carries the published do-and-don’t list, and the zone pages on the same site for their own rules; the official contact page; and, for the statutory section only, a consolidated text copy of the Act dated 1 April 2023 plus the 2022 amendment Gazette and its commencement release, all linked below.
What the official do-and-don’t page publishes
The list reads as conditions of a visit rather than as commentary. As published on the official do-and-don’t page and checked on 26 October 2026, a visitor is asked to:
- Hold the permit before entry. The permit comes first; entry follows it.
- Use the nature guide. The wording is tied to availability rather than promising a guide to every vehicle, so ask the office what applies.
- Keep to the specified roads. Those are the roads you may drive, and going off track is not permitted.
- Carry no gun.
- No smoking and no campfires.
- Do not leave the vehicle except where leaving it is allowed. The exception is written into the rule, so where it is allowed matters.
- No alcohol and no non-vegetarian food.
- Litter goes into your bag rather than on the ground.
The zone pages add rules of their own, including obeying the directions of staff on the ground. One line in the source is malformed, so only clear text from those pages is reproduced here. The conduct behind these rules is covered in our wildlife etiquette guide and the safari safety guide, and the waste side of the litter rule in the plastic and waste article; those pages are linked rather than re-explained.
What the official pages do not publish about penalties
Checked on 26 October 2026, the official pages publish no fine schedule, no compounding amounts and no reserve-specific penalty process: no table of offences and amounts, no published challan figure for this reserve, no procedure describing who compounds what, no escalation path. The obligations are published; the money consequences are not.
One published consequence is routinely mistaken for a fine: the late-arrival no-refund note. That is a booking term attached to a payment and a timing, not a penalty for an offence, so it belongs with the booking terms rather than here. It is covered in the cancellation and rescheduling guide and the day safari booking guide.
The statutory backdrop, stated as general legal information
The subsections below are general legal information about the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 as it applies to protected areas in India: not the reserve’s own words, not a Rajaji fine chart and not legal advice. Nothing here states that a particular act on a particular day will be charged under a particular section.
How the text was checked. India’s live consolidated page for the Act returned a 504 error when requested on 26 October 2026, so this page claims no live verification against it and prints no link to it. The provisions below come from a consolidated text copy of the Act dated 1 April 2023, cross-checked against the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 as published in the Gazette and the Press Information Bureau release on its commencement. On that basis:
- Section 27(1) covers entering a sanctuary without the permit it requires, and section 35(8) carries it across to national parks; section 27(4) is the litter provision in that scheme.
- Section 29 carries the habitat prohibitions for a sanctuary and section 35(6) does equivalent work for a national park, while section 30 on fire and section 31 on weapons are applied to national parks through section 35(8).
- Section 9 covers hunting, with the animals concerned specified in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule, the two schedules left in place after the 2022 amendment.
On penalties, section 51(1) sets a general contravention range of imprisonment up to 3 years, or a fine up to one lakh rupees, or both. Its first proviso provides imprisonment of not less than 3 years but which may extend to 7 years, together with a fine of not less than twenty-five thousand rupees, for an offence relating to an animal specified in those Schedules, for hunting in a national park or sanctuary, and for alteration of the boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries.
Two limits matter more than the numbers. That heavier range belongs to the heads named in the proviso and is not applied here to habitat conduct under section 29 or section 35(6), where no such basis was identified. Nothing here asserts that every item on the reserve’s do-and-don’t list is a criminal offence: where no clear section basis was identified, no section is attached.
What this page deliberately does not map
- No amounts and no mapped sections. For alcohol, non-vegetarian food, route, seat belt, late arrival and vehicle or ticket issues, no specific fine amount is published by Rajaji, so none is printed and no section is attached to them.
- No invented process or penalty. Nothing is claimed about who compounds what here, and no booking term, including late arrival, is turned into a penalty.
Where to ask about a rule
Use the official contact page, which lists the reserve office number +91 9411568917 and the support address [email protected] for the 10AM to 5PM working window. Ask about the specific rule and the specific date, and ask whether the reserve publishes the answer on its own site. Booking terms live on the official booking page and are summarised in the cancellation and rescheduling guide.
Rajaji safari rules and penalties questions answered
What do the official Rajaji pages require of a visitor?
The Do and Don’t page on the official portal publishes a short list of obligations: hold your permit before you enter, use the nature guide, keep to the specified roads and do not drive off track, carry no gun, do not smoke and do not light campfires, do not leave the vehicle except where that is allowed, do not bring alcohol or non-vegetarian food, and put litter into your bag rather than on the ground. The zone pages add rules of their own, including obeying the directions of staff. These are published conditions of the reserve, checked on 26 October 2026.
Does Rajaji publish a fine schedule or penalty amounts?
No. Checked on 26 October 2026, the official pages publish no fine schedule, no compounding amounts and no reserve-specific penalty process. They set out what a visitor must and must not do and they publish no figure attached to breaking any of those rules. The late-arrival no-refund note is a separate published booking consequence rather than a fine, and it is handled in the booking and cancellation guides linked from this page rather than repeated here.
What does the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 say about entering a protected area without a permit?
On the reading used here, section 27(1) covers entry to a sanctuary without the permit that section requires, and section 35(8) applies it to national parks, while section 27(4) is the litter provision. Sections 30 and 31, covering fire and weapons, are applied to national parks through section 35(8) as well. Section 9 covers hunting, with the animals concerned specified in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule after the 2022 amendment. On penalties, section 51(1) provides a general contravention range of imprisonment up to 3 years, or a fine up to one lakh rupees, or both, and its first proviso provides for 3 to 7 years with a minimum fine of twenty-five thousand rupees for an offence relating to an animal in those Schedules, for hunting in a national park or sanctuary, and for alteration of the boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries. This is general legal information drawn from a consolidated text copy dated 1 April 2023 and cross-checked against the 2022 amendment Gazette, not a live verification and not legal advice.
Does every rule on the reserve’s list carry a criminal penalty?
This page does not say that, and the official pages do not say it either. The Do and Don’t items are published conditions of entry, and no fine figure is attached to any of them on the official pages. The heavier statutory range belongs to the specific heads listed in the first proviso to section 51(1), and it is not applied here to habitat conduct under section 29 or section 35(6). For alcohol, non-vegetarian food, route, seat belt, late arrival and vehicle or ticket issues, no specific fine amount is published by Rajaji, so no section is mapped to them on this page.
Where do I ask about a rule, and where are the booking consequences covered?
Use the official contact page at https://rajajitigerreserve.uk.gov.in/contact-us.aspx, which lists the reserve office number +91 9411568917 and the support address [email protected] for the 10AM to 5PM working window, and ask about the specific rule and the specific date. Booking consequences such as late arrival and refunds are set out on the official booking page at https://rajajitigerreserve.uk.gov.in/jungle-safari-booking.aspx and are summarised in our cancellation and rescheduling guide, while the day-to-day conduct questions are covered by our wildlife etiquette, safari safety and plastic and waste guides, all linked from this page.