Help Tourism celebrates World Tourism Day at several destinations by empowering the grassroot level stakeholders in tourism and launching several green travel products.
Puri, by the Bay of Bengal is one of the most sought after pilgrimage destination for the Hindus worldwide has gradually emerged as a leisure holiday destinations for the millions of travellers from West Bengal and other parts of India. With the change in type, the quality of facilities also changed drastically. The pilgrimage dharamshalas (free/donation accommodation for pilgrims) were replaced by hotels, the temple prashad (food offered to the Gods and then distributed to the pilgrims) was all replaced by restaurants, rickshaws were replaced by auto-rickshaws etc. The 2000 auto rickshaws put the rickshaw pullers out of work, leaving them frustrated anti-social elements and Puri a polluted town.
A group of about 50 rickshaw pullers greeted the passengers with roses in the morning at Puri Railway Station. They were led by the local Superintendent of Police, Mr.S.K.Priyadarshi and the members of Barefoot (a local association of tour operators, hoteliers and other professionals). Help Tourism, Siliguri is an advisor to this association and acts as the principle motivator towards responsible tourism.
In the morning itself at 10am, the Mayor of Puri, Mrs.Shanti Pradhan flagged off the Green Rider Rickshaws from the Lion’s Gate of the Jagannath Temple. The rickshaws passed through all the major roads and sightseeing points, stopped occasionally by the people who supported the rickshaw pullers by giving them drinking water. The rickshaw pullers rode proudly around the town with a sense of achievement.
The evening was an exclusive event in the Panthanivas beach of Puri. This event dedicated to the rickshaw pullers and their families was attended by several tourists, travel agents and hoteliers. The chief guest of the event was Mr.S.Das Verma, the local MLA from Bragmagiri, Orissa and the Guest of Honour was Dr.Peter Patel, an active Rotarian from the United Kingdom who has been organizing several health programs in Orissa. Mr.Gobind C. Bhuyan, Asst. Director, India Tourism was a special guest at the event.
The highlight of the evening was the team of Mrs.Nanda Kundu, a salsha guru from Delhi and founder of Kiran’s Dance in Rhythm, who performed several international level western and Indian folk & classical dance forms. The team consisted of both Indians and foreigners and truly lived to the theme of World Tourism Day 2009, celebrating diversity. A team from the youths of the Sevait families performed yoga under Bharat Yoga Kendra. The Green Riders were finally recognized on stage and several facilities were announced for them.
International sand sculptor, Mr.Sudarshan Pattnaik and his team created a beautiful piece of art in sand to match the World Tourism Day theme. A film by famous news personnel, Ajoy Roy, who is also the President of ACT (Association for Conservation & Tourism) made an excellent promo -documentary on the Green Riders.
The extraordinary initiative was taken by Mr.Yugabrata Kar, founder of Heritage Tours of Puri and Barefoot, Puri. This was supported by India Tourism (Kolkata & Bhubaneswar), Orissa Tourism, Mayfair Puri, Chariot Puri, Holiday Resort, Shakti International, State Bank of India, Lakshya, NICE, Coca cola, 1000 Sands etc.
Kurseong, a part of the Darjeeling Hills in the East Himalaya houses the World Heritage Site, the DHR (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway), but the sense of ownership by the local people was missing as their livelihood had no relation with the DHR. This is when the DHR Director, Kurseong SDO , Divisional Forest Officer and several other persons from the administration and political parties decided to support a local group of youth from Kurseong and adjoining areas to start ecotourism and hence their name Himalayan Ecotourism Welfare Society.
Help Tourism, as their advisors helped the youths to constitute a management committee and framed a greater heritage area added to the DHR World Heritage Site, ‘Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park’. The Tea Estates and Forests with the people in and around Kurseong were included in the map. Hotels, Tea & Forest Bungalows, Homestays and other service providers were identified and added to the initiative. Activities including nature treks, nature drives, tea treks, tea drives, DHR heritage rides, cultural shows, handicrafts & handlooms and volunteering with schools, scouts, health & Agro based NGOs, salamander conservation programs etc were included.
The official launching was done on the World Tourism Day, 2009 in the presence of several people and media from the region. Chief Guest, Mr.Gopal Lama, Director, West Bengal Tourism and Guest of Honour, Mr.Subrata Nath, Director, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway declared the project launching of ‘Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park’. They both said that this initiative will bring back the old glory of Kurseong. Mr.Gopal Lama said that this will help in generating self employment in hundreds of families in this area and will support a better civil society. Mr.Subrata Nath said that they will provide all support for the successful implementation of this project, also a tourist information centre was inaugurated in the Kurseong Railway Station on this date to be managed by the Himalayan Ecotourism Welfare Society. Mr.Paras Dahal, the East Himalaya co-ordinator for Help Tourism said that the national & international bodies like DHR-India Support Group & DHR Society will certainly provide support to the initiative by participating in the several ecotourism programs that have been launched and will help in promoting the same.
Map of Kurseong Ecotourism & Heritage Park
It has been almost three months since the devastating cyclone struck the Sunderbans delta. And the battle still continues with poor rain falls, no agriculture followed by the hungry autumn looming large. Thousands of villagers have been displaced; many more have already migrated to the cities leaving behind their heavy hearts, but millions have no choice but to stay back and continue their day-to-day battle in this hostile terrain. The cyclone had hit the Bengal coast on Monday, 25th of May 2009 and has left a massive trail of destruction in different parts of the state. The scale of destruction and the suffering of the effected people were unprecedented.
