Top Gear in new wilderness damage furore

Conservationists have attacked BBC show Top Gear for causing damage to untouched wilderness in Botswana.

The motoring show hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, James May and 300 mph crash-survivor Richard Hammond drove vehicles across the Makgadikgadi salt pans, which caused tyre tracks that the conservationists say could last for decades.

Guide David Dugmore was quoted in the Observer newspaper saying: "The thing that worries me is the viewers and public that are going to go out to the lakes and we will end up with every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes up, with vehicles and quad bikes, which will absolutely spoil the place."

A BBC spokeswoman denied the show entered any conservation areas, however.

"We employed several environmental experts who advised us on were we could and couldn't go," she said.

This new storm over the environmental impact of Top Gear follows Clarkson driving a 4x4 up Ben Tongue mountain in Scotland for a show in 2004.

Conservationists claimed this stunt destroyed sensitive peat and heather on the climb, which caused substantial ecological damage - although the programme makers denied the allegations.

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