Help Tourism

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.

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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.

We are proud and happy that Help Tourism bagged two awards at the Travel and Tourism Fair TTF, India’s largest travel show and one of the biggest in Asia.

Judges at the TTF-Hyderabad (3rd to 5th July 2009) felt that “Help Tourism’s sustained effort to safeguard the environment and involve the local communities in conservation through tourism has been an example of best practices in what is truly meant by EcoTourism”.
Consequently, they awarded the Help Tourism movement in East-and Northeast India with the “Best Initiative to Protect Environment Award 2009”

The Dibang Valley Jungle Camp, in Mishmi Hills, Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, is a new project, only recently launched by Help Tourism. Judges honored the camp as “Most Innovative Tourism Product 2009“.
While presenting the award Mr.G.Ibrahim, Executive Director of Fairfest Media Limited said: ‘It is important to note as to how Help Tourism has been extending its work to far-flung areas and reaching out to remote rural populace with their unique tourism initiatives that support local enterprises and combine local experiences and culture in such a way that the visitors get master-piece holidays and inspirational value.”

Help Tourism in association with WBFDC launches first-of-its-kind Tourism Peace Park in the country

Help Tourism in association with West Bengal Forest Development Corporation (WBFDC) has launched the first-of-its-kind Tourism Peace Park in Noam Chel Teesta situated near East of Teesta River and between Neora Valley National Park, Garumara National Park and Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. This part of the said area, North of Oodlabari is mostly under the management of West Bengal Forest Development Corporation (WBFDC) and the South area is mostly managed by the Baikanthapur Forest Division, therefore a major concern is the conservation of the rich natural resources. This Park has been launched in order to promote Community Based Tourism (CBT) in the East Himalayas. This information was divulged by Supratim Raj Basu, Ecotourism Consultant, Help Tourism.#

In addition, CBT initiators have tied up with ten villages in the North of West Bengal where they provide various activities such as home stays, trekking, nature study, camping, cycling, forest drive, cultural encounters of six different communities et al for tourists visiting the Park. The main idea is to develop Community Based Tourism (CBT) and provide support to maintain peace and harmony among different communities existing there. They also provide various packages of six nights and seven days ranging between Rs 500-Rs 1,000 per person, per day. According to their brochure most villages situated inside the Park are not known and no modern development has been undertaken there as yet unlike other parts of West Bengal. The inhabitants find their livelihood from nature around them. The area is home to several animals like leopards and elephants etc.

According to certain sources, the initiative for developing the Tourism Peace Park was led by Pallab Basu of Oodlabari Tourism Development Association, officials of WBFDC and Help Tourism members. They had their first meeting regarding the same in December 2008 at a factory of Assam Bengal Veneer Industries (ABVI). The meet was attended by 61 local stake holders from the several villages.

Source: Travel Biz Monitor, www.travelbizmonitor.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009, 17:00 Hrs  [IST], By Anish V Punnackattu | New Delhi

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more pictures from the peace park

Dear Friends!

The year 2008 was quite exciting for us and the organization did indeed touch few new milestones.

As a country India has commanded more respect from the rest of the World as one of the largest economies and the largest repository of intellect and knowledge.But sadly, there can not be any denying the fact that our villages and communities have not benefited much from the growing GDP, large-scale developments, highest ever-recorded growth of the stock market and the successful space mission to the moon , though all these have marked 2008 as a very special year!

The year has also witnessed the suffering of the people and vast destruction of nature in the name of development projects such as the Teesta and Dibang Multipurpose river dams.The future of the wildlife looks grim with deepening Tiger crisis and the threatening projects such as a big port proposed in coastal Orisssa – an area which has drawn the attention of the world as one of the largest rookeries of the endangered Olive Ridley Turtles!

Just before the festive mood was about to set in, the country was shaken by unprecedented display of terrorism, violence.The serial blasts in Guwahati and Mumbai, the blasts in Gujarat and Jaipur gripped the country with unspeakable horror! With the nose-dive of stock market and economic recession millions of people have lost job and social security across the globe.

And the tourism , as the saying goes is one of the largest income-multipliers, faced the most challenging situation in the country and still continuing fighting with it.

But, the show must go on! Let us hope and pray for better days and also consolidate our strength and mandates to use tourism as a tool with more responsibility for the betterment of our people, our planet, our wildlife! Let tourism be the vehicle to enhance compassion, friendship,harmony in human civilization that has lived many thousand years despite calamities and wars! Let tourism bring PEACE -the item that the human society needs to restore most urgently and more profoundly at this hour than ever before!

May we declare the mission of Help Tourism for 2009 AND 2010: “TOURISM FOR PEACE!”

We wish you, your families a peaceful and prosperous New Year!

With lots of love, regards and appreciation.

Happy New Year!

–
Asit Biswas
Assistant Secretary & Founder Member
Association for Conservation and Tourism(ACT)

Help Tourism was one of the organisers of a conference that was held in Siliguri to highlight the links between tourism and a living Buddhism with a focus on the East Himalaya. Peace, spiritual oneness and preservation of heritage – tangible and intangible – are common aims.

Buddhism to boost tourism!

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Nov. 23: Dr Ravindra Panth, the Vice-Chancellor of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda Deemed University) said that the hoary heritage associated with Buddhism must be preserved and the Northeast India, being the melting pot for several cultures, must play its role to disseminate the spiritual message of eternal India far and wide.
He was addressing a seminar on ‘Living Buddhism in Northeast India and its importance in tourism’ in Siliguri yesterday. Mr PK Dong, the former director (Europe), for the government of India, department of tourism, inaugurated the seminar. It was organised by Navanalanda Mahavihara and Help Tourism.
Emphasising the importance of Buddhism in today’s world Dr Panth said that with the world in turmoil the perennial philosophy enshrined in the Buddhist scriptures and culture must again inspire the world at large.
“And the Northeast India is the right place to disseminate the message of peace and spiritual oneness far and wide. My university is looking forward to the spiritually imbued region for the regeneration of the Indian mysticism, seemingly the only way out of the deepening crisis of civilisation,” he said.
Mr Dong said that an endeavour was on to create a circuit connecting the Buddhist communities in the Northeast India including the East Himalayas.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=10&id=258947&usrsess=1