KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Walkers have started a petition to stop nudists from Robin Hood’s famous Sherwood Forest.

The Mirror reported that the historic Nottinghamshire woodland has long been hugely popular with walking groups due to its links with the English folklore hero and his pal Little John.

It features attractions such as the Major Oak, a 1,000-year-old tree thought to be one of the oldest in the country.

But a group of visitors is now claiming the forest’s tranquility forest has been shattered, with a petition bidding the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Nottinghamshire County Council, which are joint operators of Sherwood Forest, to make clothes mandatory for visitors.

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According to the portal, the petition was started by the husband of a female cyclist after she claimed she was flashed at by a man pleasuring himself in the bushes.

The man claimed nudists had started walking around in groups of “up to 12 men”.

“The reason this needs to be discouraged is on the afternoon of July 15, my wife was cycling through Budby Moor when she was confronted by a naked man in the bushes who was self-gratifying himself as she went by,” the petition read.

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His wife used to regularly jog around the forest, he said, but stopped when she came across the men.

His petition, on the website Change.org, continued: “Every day, in good weather, nudists can be seen. The police state it is an offence if we find it offensive, which we do”.

“There is a nudists’ retreat nearby that they can use, away from the public. Instead of discouraging this minority, the RSPB have stated that the nudists are welcome so long as they wear clothes when leaving and returning to their cars.”

But he claimed nudists had been wandering into the busier areas, alarming other visitors.

The Telegraph quoted a spokesman of RSPB as saying that naturists have enjoyed walking in quieter areas of Budby Forest South, just north of the busier Sherwood site, for decades.

Their presence was tolerated, and indeed legal, he said, provided they adhered to certain behaviours.

Nottinghamshire county council’s Mick Allen said naturism in appropriate circumstances is legal.

“We are not therefore in a position to ban naturists from Sherwood Forest.”