Help Tourism

“With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion.” 

The year 2010 has been very special for Help Tourism as the organization completed its 20 years in Responsible Tourism. It was indeed an eventful journey punctuated by joy and sorrow. We salute all the members of the team and extended family of Help Tourism and our guests and partners who gave us support and sustenance. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to conservation and communities by practicing tourism as the religion of mankind. 

Despite many challenges the organization successfully launched several new initiatives, projects and programmes in 2010. 

The WTD (World Tourism Day) Yatra was a grand success with several very fruitful programmes in Dhaka and Paharpur to connect the heritages of Bangladesh and India. The Indian delegation was lead by internationally famous filmmaker Goutam Ghosh. 

Two Peace Parks were established in 2010: Guru Padmasambhava Peace Park in Ultapani in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam and Lalon Fakir Peace Park in Chilapata in North Bengal. 

The annual Nature and Community festival at Chilapata witnessed record attendance of all the local and regional stakeholders. 

The Samsing Jaldhaka Orange Festival  received overwhelming response with more than 5000 participants who presented a spontaneous and spectacular show for two days and mesmerized the audience and guests. 

The ‘Waste-free Destinations’ campaign continued in 2010 with enthusiastic participation of the local grass route NGOs, travel trade, local traders, lodges and home stay operators, Forest department and local administration in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam. 

With generous support from the state Forest and Tourism departments, Help Tourism introduced full-fledged nature-based and cultural tours in Tripura. 

We along with our Nagaland team leader Angulie Meyase assisted celebrity birders Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, S.Ramakrishnan, Bano Haralu and Government of Nagaland in conducting the first systemic Ornithological survey in Nagaland. 

We also supported the research and photo-documentation projects in Bengal and Northeast India for the publication of the book named Forts and Palaces of India published by Om Books International, written by Amita Baig and designed by Alpana Khare with photographs by Joginder Singh. 

An extensive training programme was organized by us at The Swiss Hotel, Darjeeling for the Project Leaders of nature-based rural tourism initiatives in East and Northeast India. 35 Project Leaders received training on hospitality basics, rural tourism management and operations, community based tourism, adventure tourism, waste management and conservation of natural resources. 

Help Tourism received the prestigious “HSBC-TOFT Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year” award. Our Dihing River Camp was awarded “The Most Innovative Tourism Product” at the 80th TTF (Travel and Tourism Fair) in Kolkata. 

The modern India is emerging as the second largest growing economic power in the world though sadly, despite the strong economic growth, huge domestic capacity and service potential, India still witnesses alarming disparity between the rich and poor and poverty and backwardness in the rural areas where the communities are ready to sprout with even a little encouragement and support. Tourism in general too has still a long way to walk to take a turnaround and recognize Responsible Tourism as a key to reduce the disparity and drive conservation efforts and help communities to establish their ownership on local resources. 

To much to our delight, a new Mantra of Responsible Tourism is increasingly proving its worth as a level maker by poverty alleviation and bringing valuable resources and benefits to the rural communities. Volun-Tourism as it is commonly known is the demonstration of the noble way of sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources between the guests and the hosts and giving maximum back to the people and destination while enjoying an inspirational holiday experience. It opens up the global door through the local window. 

Based on the need of the local communities in the destinations and the various skills possessed by the Volun-Tourists, Help Tourism has introduced well-researched and custom-made Volun-Tourism holidays and projects in several villages in East & Northeast India over the years and has already gained the trust and confidence of the communities. 

Through our projects and tours Volun-Tourists have been able to cut across all geographical, language and cultural barriers and have adopted villages lying adjacent to the Protected areas and Heritage sites – from the mangroves of Sunderbans to the remote mountains in Mishmi hills and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, from the tropical forest of Bengal Dooars and Assam to the high altitude ecosystem in Neora Valley and Sikkim,  by bringing support to various important fields such as education, self-help enterprises, sustainable bio-farming, low cost and pollution free energy, rain water harvesting, medical assistance, small-scale handicraft business, organic food product, waste management, home-hospitality business, wildlife conservation, creation of community buffer forest and biological corridors; documentation of indigenous culture, language and folklores; survey and monitoring of endangered plants and wildlife. 

With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion. 

May we declare the mission of Help Tourism for 2011:
RURAL ENLIGHTENMENT THROUGH VOLUN-TOURISM! 

We solicit your blessings, support and participation to help us establish benchmarks in Responsible Tourism and influence rest of the globe with our humble mission. 

We wish you all a great, peaceful and prosperous New Year ahead. 

With deep regards, admiration, appreciation and love. 

Help Tourism Family. 

31st December 2010, India.

WTD Yatra 2010:

Paharpur World Heritage Site, Bangladesh

WTD or World Tourism Day is observed globally on the 27th of September every year with several themes to be carried forward for responsible contribution of the tourism industry. This is an important day to launch tourism products, especially in the Eastern Indian subcontinent as this is the starting of the yearly season after the monsoons.

Yatra, is an old Indian word which is a part of the Tirtha-Yatra, meaning pilgrimage or journey for enlightment. Hence, the word ‘yatra’ to ‘WTD’, a journey to tourism enlightenment, started on the 27th of September, 2010 from Dhaka. This was followed by the workshop at Paharpur and the journey completed at Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

World-Tourism-Day-2010 Yatra: Delegates

About a 100 delegates from different works of life from Joypurhat, Naogaon, Bogora, Dhaka and India, of which about 87 of them had registered attended the workshop and contributed to the ‘Paharpur Declaration’, a continuation of the ‘Shantiniketan Declaration’, where tourism, peace and heritage conservation in cross-border initiatives were the priorities. The same priorities continued in the formation of the ‘Paharpur Declaration’. There were 60 recommendations in the ‘Paharpur Declaration’ which has been mentioned at the end of this report. Details about the Paharpur Circuit from Joypurhat will be available on the website www.livingbuddhism.in. During the occasion of the WTD Yatra 2010, DMSS opened its guest house on the outskirts of the Joypurhat town on the way to Paharpur. The 10 double bedded (attach toilet cum bath) rooms were used for the delegates and a plan for adding 04 family rooms are in process. The bookings of all these rooms, along with sightseeing and village visits will be available with Help Tourism’s Bangla Initiative. Special interest combined itineraries for Bangladesh will be available with Jouney Plus at Dhaka. For details please check www.journeyplus.com.

Dhaka delegation leader Mr.Pijush Banerjee

The Indian delegates was led by Mr.Goutam Ghose and the Dhaka delegates by Mr.Pijush Banerjee. The moderator for the Paharpur workshop was Mr.Shekhar Das and the Chief Guest was Mr.Safiqul Islam, DG-Archaeology. Dr.Nazmanara Khanum, the DC of Naogaon District was the Special Guest of the occasion. The workshop was opened by the film ‘Beyond Barriers’, a film by Ajoy Roy. The welcome address was made by Taufiq Rahman and the ground for the workshop was presented through a guideline explained by Raj Basu. The organizing part of the workshop and the Joypurhat hospitality was made successful by Shah Fakir Md. Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury Prince and Apurba Sarkar. Almost all delegates participated in the workshop and their inputs were noted as a part of the ‘Paharpur Declaration’.

Indian delegation leader Mr.Goutam Ghose

Ground Work

Help Tourism during its last decade of serious work on Buddhism in the East Himalaya mainly with the scope of establishing Cross-Border tourism for peace and its connectivity with the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda deemed University) wanted to explore the positioning of Paharpur as a World Heritage Site to attract visitors and connect it to development of Community Based Tourism (CBT) locally. Sascha Prinz, a masters degree ecotourism intern from University of Applied Science – Eberswalde, Germany, who had come to work on the Help Tourism sites, was sent to make a preliminary survey in February 2009. As per his report, the region offers great potential but was lacking infastructure. There was no infrastructure to attract special interest tourists in Buddhism who would spent a few days at Paharpur, but the people in general were hospitable.

World-Tourism-Day-2010: Nagaon DC

A two members team led by Raj Basu and joined by Biplab Saha took a YATRA (journey) to Paharpur between 9th to 11th September, 2009 as a part of Help Tourism’s Bangla Initiative (an initiative which was taken by Help Tourism in 2001 to explore the World Heritage Sites of Bangladesh) and talked to several possible stakeholder groups during this period. During this trip the interest and advantage of Joypurhat District town and its people were realized and the initiative to make it a base for Heritage Tourism in North Bengal of Bangladesh, mainly for Paharpur and Mahasthangarh was begun. Again on the World Tourism Day 2009, 27th September a group of tourists from Kolkata (Calcutta), led by Biplab Saha was taken to Joypurhat. They were taken around the several sightseeing places in the area, followed by a cultural evening by the people of Joypurhat and it was confirmed through their satisfaction, that this can easily be developed as the ‘Joypurhat circuit’. Since then several community meetings, local infrastructure development initiatives and circuit development programs were organized. The most active organizations of the area in this initiative have been the Joypurhat Municipality, Phulki, Sishu Udyan and DMSS.

World Tourism Day 2010: Heritage Tourism and Cross-Border Opportunities

The most important part to make everything happen is ‘Motivating Dhaka’. If the intellectual community, administration and travel industry of Dhaka is not a part of this initiative, then it would be half done. Hence, a strong partner from Dhaka became a must for this initiative. We could not think of a better partner than Mr.Taufiq Rahman of Journey Plus at Dhaka, who has been with this initiative from day one with all moral support. During his visit to Kolkata TTF 2010, he was taken for familiarization to Help Tourism’s Community Based Tourism Project at Bali in Sunderbans. This was the starting of a greater initiative connecting Bangladesh all along its borders with Northeast India and West Bengal known as ‘Heritage Tourism and Cross-Border Opportunities’. It was decided that the last one and a half years of ground work at Paharpur would be launched as Part 01 of this greater initiative during the World Tourism Day 2010 through the WTD Yatra 2010 ‘Dhaka to Darjeeling via Paharpur, connecting 02 North Bengals’. This was in continuation with the ‘Shantiniketan Declaration’, a workshop held at Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan on the 29th and 30th of March, 2010 being organized by Help Tourism in collaboration with Visva Bharati University, India Tourism, ACT, Travel to Care, IIPT, ICRT-India and West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation. Accordingly, Taufiq with his network developed a Dhaka Team for the WTD Yatra 2010 for which the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh confirmed their collaboration.

About Paharpur

Atish Dipankar as Professor and Chancellor of Sompura Mahavihara translated Madhyamaka Ratna Pradipa into Tibetan language. It is believed that during his stay at Sompura Mahavihara, war broke out between King Nayapala, son of King Mahipala and Laxmilarna, King of Kalachuri. It was Atish Dipankar’s meditation that helped to terminate hostilities and establish peace. Though he was invited to visit Tibet and preach Buddhism by the then King Lah Lama Yioshi Hod, yet he could only make his YATRA (journey) in 1040AD during the reign of King Chang Chub Jnanaprabha. Tibetan Buddhists refer to him as Jabo Chhenpo (a great God), one of the greatest masters of Buddhism.
Tibetan works (Tibetan translations of Dharmakayavidhi and Madhyamika Ratna Pradipa, Taranatha’s history and Pag-Sam-Jon-Zang) reveals the glory of Sompura Mahavihara. Ratnakara Shanti was the stavira of the Mahavihara, Mahapanditacharya Bodhibhadra was a monk of this Mahavihara, Kalamahapada, Viryendra and Karunashrimitra spent time as scholars of this Mahavihara. Taranatha and other Tibetan sources mention that King Devapala built the Sompura Mahavihara after the conquest of the Varendra Bhumi.

Paharpur World Heritage Site

The excavated ruins at Paharpur in the Nagaon District and 10 kms from the district town of Joypurhat, Bangladesh establishes the fact that Sompura Mahavihara was built by the 2nd Pala king, Dharmapala between 781 to 821 AD. Clay seals from the ruins bear the inscription ‘Shri-Somapure-Shri-Dharmapaladeva-Mahavihariyarya-Bhikhshu-Sanghashya’. King Devapala and his son King Mahendrapala continued their patronage to the Mahavihara. During the reign of King Mahipala (995 to 1043 AD) the Mahavihara was repaired and renovated. It is recorded in the Nalanda inscription of Vipulashrimitra, that his ancestor Karunashrimitra lost his life in the fire as he refused to leave the Mahavihara. This was probably from the attack of the Varman rulers of Vanga. About a century later, Vipulashrimitra restored the former glory of the Mahavihara and built a Temple of Tara. The expression then used for the temple was ‘Jagatang Netraika Vishrama Bhuh’ (a singular feast to the eyes of the world).

The 2010 HSBC – TOFT Wildlife Tourism Awards are intended to:

• Highlight the important work being done by the tourism industry in support of tiger and forest conservation
• Increase awareness of responsible tourism as a force in conservation and habitat renewal
• Reward and encourage best practice operations
• Encourage sustainability in tourism enterprises
• Promote community enterprises and initiatives around Tiger Parks.

Judges comments:

Help Tourism is a fascinating ecotourism business, with both private and NGO aspirations. It supported community owned tourism lodges in many places including Manas National Park with the Bodo tribal leaders. Since 1992 their efforts have reaped rewards and now include such lodges and carefully constructed itineraries in Assam, North Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh. Furthermore they are a unique business, both lodge and tour operators, operating in the conservation and community space, in off the beaten track and more remote regions. This award would highlight their team’s excellent approach to private sector’s partnership with a dedicated mission, in its key destinations.

The Award sponsored by The Blue Yonder includes a prize of INR 25000 towards equipment/services for the benefit of the winning community.

“We are deeply grateful that the continuous conservation efforts of the communities of East Himalaya have been recognized. The Award will be an additional boost for the community tourism movement in Northeast India. Spiritually, and practically as it enables us to fund new conservation and community development activities”, said Asit Biswas, director of Help Tourism after the ceremony.

More information about the Award and the other winners on the TOFT website

TOFT, the Travel Operators for Tigers, is a ‘supply chain’ pressure campaign initiative aimed at a Global collective and inclusive Travel trade response to the tiger crisis in India, and by association, all the forests and wildlife being affected in the Indian subcontinent .

Objectives:

• To advocate and support better tourism practices in wilderness areas, with specific guidelines for operators, service and accommodation providers and visitors. Look out for the TOFT signs and PUG ratings.
• To empower local communities to become involved in wildlife tourism projects and initiate low impact and sustainable development which helps conserves the parks and benefits the communities through employmnet and business opportunities.
• To catalyse initiatives throughthe lodge communty that enhance wildlife conservation and community support, including waste and water management, trade cooperatives, local employment, fair wages and local enterprises and services.

For almost twenty years now, Help Tourism is following communities’ invitations to bring tourism development to their areas. Since, many formerly unknown destinations have made it into the tourism circuit. Some of them, like West-Sikkim, became world famous. Constant Innovation is the core of Help Tourism’s work and efforts and we are happy to announce that The Dihing River Camp near Khowang village on Dihing River, Dibrugarh, Assam won the  ’The Most Innovative New Destination Award’  at TTF (Travel & Tourism Fair) at Calcutta.