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.

It is heartening to note that the seeds of Ecotourism movement have started sprouting in Central Dooars after Help Tourism stepped in to develop a demonstration model in Chilapata Wildlife Sanctuary three years ago. Since then several initiatives have been taken by the local communities and the movement is getting stronger and exemplary.

 The fact that the local villagers are taking increasing interest to develop community enterprises in the tourism sector following the guidelines of Ecotourism was evident in a series of workshops held in Rajabhatkhawa and Raimatang recently.

Rajabhatkhawa has a long history and, as a gateway to the majestic Buxa Tiger Reserve, it is already well-known in the tourism circuits of Eastern Dooars. Although tourism started in Buxa landscape quite a few years ago the local communities did not have until recent times any specific direction or model to follow to make it sustainable and equitable. Buxa is a designated Tiger Reserve and a critically important wildlife habitat which supports many wildlife corridors since it is contiguous to Bhutan and Assam. With our tourism projects in East & Northeast India we have shown that community-based Ecotourism can effectively drive conservation and ensure poverty alleviation. We took this campaign and experience to the communities of Eastern Dooars as well through the Chilapata Jungle Camp model and it produced excellent result and received overwhelming response.

 Mr. Ramkumar Lama – a local community leader and social activist took the leadership and stepped up the campaign and motivated the communities to come forward.
From our past experience we have seen that every project site or destination adjoining the protected areas has its own dynamics, ground realities and different scopes based on which the tourism-based and associated livelihoods should be conceived and developed which must benefit the local communities and aid the conservation of the wildlife habitat.

 In order to understand and discuss the local dynamics, scopes and available resources through exchange of ideas and expertise and create the climate for implementation of  Ecotourism projects at the local level, Ramkumar and his organization Yugantar Pariwar organized the workshops on Eco & Tea Tourism in association with Help Tourism as their Resource Partner and active participation of Khetriya Gramin Bank and the local branch of Art of Living Foundation at the Forest lodge in Rajabhatkhawa and at Sahid Ajay Lama Eco Park in  Raimatang beat of Buxa Tiger Reserve on 29th & 30th November and 17th to 19th December 2010 respectively.

All local stakeholders, self-help groups, NGOs, representatives from travel trade-local administration-department of agriculture and forest, local villagers and experts from various relevant fields attended the workshops and had extensive interaction and discussion about the possibility and scope of developing community-based tourism business in the area. Our colleague Ms.Tapashi Bose was present at both the workshops as the Resource Person from Help Tourism and explained the Help Tourism model to the participants through presentation and interactive class.

Ram Kumar Lama gave a very interesting presentation about the enormous potential of community-based tourism in this part of Dooars which can attract Ecotourists from different parts of the country and abroad because of its captivating natural beauty and ethnic and cultural diversity. The area has several protected wildlife parks and foothill forests, tea gardens, hills, snow-fed rivers, heritage and historical sites and tribal settlements. The possibility of developing circuits based on various special interest travels such as heritage tourism, cultural tourism, craft tourism, home stays and tea tourism with interesting activities such as treks, bird watching, butterfly watching, bi-cycle tours, Elephant-back rides, tribal cultural tour, local cuisine tour, study tour, hiking tour etc. was discussed at the workshops. The local villagers expressed keen interest to develop home hospitality business in their villages.

The experts from Khetriya Gramin Bank gave very useful information about the bank loans available for Ecotourism business and interest on loans and repayment modalities. They also explained the benefits of Kisan Credit Cards and how this can help local villagers to be a part of Ecotourism business and earn from Organic food cultivation, farming of medicinal plants etc. and protect the environment.

The importance of preservation and maintenance of historical sites, especially the Buxa Fort which used to be a cellular jail during the freedom struggle and Gangutia Monastery which dates back to 1936 and is an important Buddhist shrine was discussed at the workshops and it was decided that concerned departments will be approached with specific proposals for financial and other assistances to preserve these heritage sites and facilitate the tourists to visit the sites.

Hearty local meal prepared by the villagers was served at the workshops. The workshops concluded with questions-answers and interviews in which the famous writer from Jalpaiguri Mr.Punyashlok Dasgupta confirmed that he will highlight the initiatives taken by the local youth through his articles and write ups.

Field training and capacity building workshops on rural/home hospitality management and operations, training and workshop on construction of local-style and sustainable accommodation and identification of various guided tourism activities and experiences to create a whole range of specialized and unique tourism products, waste and natural resource management etc. will be organized in the next phase.

A festival to promote the Samsing-Jaldhaka area in the foothills of the Bhutan Himalaya under Darjeeling Hills as a major orange growing landscape within the pristine nature to promote community based tourism, ecological conservation, Indo-Bhutan Friendship and Peace.

Dates: 6th and 7th of December 2010

• Organized by:
  Samsing-Jaldhaka Orange Festival CommitteeIn Collaboration with:
  WBFDC & Help Tourism
  Resort Owners Association, Lataguri
  Gorumara Paryatan Unnayan Committee
  Chuikhim-Elbong Homestays
  Lava Hotel Restaurant Owners Association
  Loleygaon-Kafer Hotel Owners Association
  Association for Conservation and Tourism
  Nature Mate Nature Club
  Chauthary, Samsing

For any further details please visit: http://orangefestival.blogspot.com/

Chilapata Sanctuary, 08th April 2010: Last night when Buada rang me up from Chilapata sometimes past 10 at night, I had just returned from the Northeast Council Tourism Meet at Gangtok where one of the major points of discussion was ‘how can tourism stop climate change’. This was the second discussion this week, as on Sunday at a meeting of the Environment and Forest Ministers of the two nations, Bangladesh & India, I was asked to speak on ‘Sunderbans, tourism and climate change’.

Buada told me that his father Shibjee had passed away. I rushed to Chilapata today morning and found several people from different communities (Oraon, Munda, Kora, Karjee, Rabha, Mech, Bihari, Nepali, Bengali and Rajbongshi) were present at the funeral. An old man was sitting in front of Buada’s house and was continuously crying and saying: “Shibjee first came to our house more than 50 years back and my father looked after both of us as brothers.”

In a small village near Samastipur in Bihar, Shibjee was born. His father passed away in his young age, and his uncles claimed his mother of having mental problems and chased her away with her two sons, the other elder to Shibjee. The uncles took away the land and the mother with two sons took shelter at a Brahmin’s house at Samastipur. The elder brother went as a child labour to Samastipur Jute Mill and the mother with the younger son worked for the Brahmin at his house.

Not long when Shibjee went to work at Ranchi, from where he managed to go to Calcutta. A long part of his life as he told his son Bua (Ganesh Sah) that he served a doctor at his house in Chittagong. In the year 1949 and the early 1950s, East Bengal was undergoing the process of becoming East Pakistan, and the Pakistan constitution was being formed on the basis of Islam. This created riots in East Bengal, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and several parts of the subcontinent.
This made Shibjee flee Chittagong in 1954 and come and take shelter in Mathura Tea Estate, one of the first established tea estates of Dooars. The rise of the industrial revolution in United Kingdom in the 18th & 19th centuries, that was the time when the English sailed continents in search of new grounds for entrepreneurship, and started to create tea estates in India, mainly East. As a result, large forested landscapes had to be alternated with tea plantations. This is when they needed labours. The Barraiks were instrumental in bringing thousands of labourers from their state of Bihar and adjoining areas, who were made to work hard in these plantations at the present area Mathura next to Chilapata Sanctuary. In the process, the Barraiks became Rajas or Landlords of the area and owned large land areas, elephants, arms and people.

Chilapata had seen kings in the past and the fort ruins next to Bania River remain silent witness to the glorious past. As per historians, the ruins belong to the Gupta age and are often referred to the mythology of Nal Raja of Nal-Damiyanti. Several others believe that this fort belonged to Naranarayan, the King of Coochbehar and some argue that the area belonged to his General Chilla Rai, who was a great warrior and administrator. Today, the ruins are almost hidden in the forests of Chilapata Sanctuary, where the fort is inhabited by our wilder part of the ecology which includes everything from elephants to pythons, both very commonly sited.

Shibjee started his livelihood by selling chana masala in and around Mathura. He gradually started venturing in the forests carrying snack food to be sold to the mahalders and their party, who were engaged in timber extraction. This was a continuation of the imperialistic British policy of earning revenue from their empire areas rich in natural resources. Timber and Tea industries were then at its best in the Bengal Dooars areas and brought generous returns for hardworking Shibjee. The turning point came in when he and his Nepali friend were trampled by a wild elephant in the forest. His Nepali friend died, but he survived with severe injuries. The timber merchants and their people rushed him to the Alipurdual hospital and after weeks of struggle he survived. He was no more capable of walking around to sell his snacks. The Timber Merchants then built him a small shed at present Chilapata More, where his son Bua (Ganesh Sah) still lives with his family, from where Shibjee sold food and sweets often patronized by Timber Merchants and Forest officials coming for short stay at the Chilapata Forest Bungalow.

The Chilapata Forest Bungalow, which was a major transit Bungalow for government officers in the past, a must stopover from Coochbehar through the Dooars in those good old days when the unbroken forests along the Bhutan foothills were abundant with wildlife. The old log book describes the presence of Tigers, Panthers and several other celebrity wildlife which were easily sighted. The other day Chilapata Jungle Camp had some guests, one of the elderly ladies was the wife of a retired Conservator Forests, who had stayed here more than thirty years back. She described that the bungalow was surrounded by forests and had a water body in front, which attracted wild animals throughout the day. Several retired and present forest officials called Buada on his mobile and conveyed their message on the demise of his father Shibjee.

Ganesh Sah, Buada as he is popularly called in the area was brought up in the forest among the timber extraction business. His skills, intelligence and upbringing soon made him a Man Friday to the illegal timber trade lobby. He gradually became a threat to the local Forest Department. In the mid and late 1990s, a community based tourism movement was started by Help Tourism with the West Bengal Forest Department in North Bengal, both Hills & Dooars, a process to achieve protection of forest resources through tourism. The then Minister for Forests, Mr.Jogesh Burman himself, a strong believer of this movement aggressively used the tool for the forest fringe villagers. Buada, became a part of this movement with enthusiasm from the Minister and DFO.
He took a loan from the local bank and started with a tourism infrastructure in the fringe of the forests, behind the Chilapata Forest Bungalow in the name of Shibjee Green India Tourist Cottage. This became a project in isolation and there was hardly any market linkage. Buada was disturbed with the increasing bank interest and approached the Minister again, who suggested him to contact Help Tourism. In the meanwhile Help Tourism was already supporting a wildlife researcher, Subhodeep from Alipurduar on forgs & toads. He along with guidance and support of Zoological Survey of India scientist, Kaushik Deuti encountered upon a new species of frog at Chilapata.

Hence, Help Tourism took up the responsibility to be involved with Chilapata Sanctuary, the green corridor between Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary and Buxa Tiger Reserve. With the help of Wildlife III of West Bengal Forest Department, 29 local youths from different communities were trained as ‘ecoguides’. A yearly ecotourism festival was started with fixed date celebration from 15th to 17th September. Buada was given the support to complete the infrastructure, local people were trained to provide services and bank debts were cleared through a partnership, keeping the ownership of Buada intact. Branding of the infrastructure was brought intune as ‘Chilapata Jungle Camp’. Conservation networking with adjoining Bhutan and Manas Biosphere Reserve has been started.
The Chilapata Initiative is being taken forward to be the core between Assam-Bengal and Bhutan-Bengal Conservation Tourism relations. The rewind of the imperialistic deeds are not possible, but to bring back community ownership and responsibility for their natural resources is of course the goal, which in turn will help to slow the ‘Climate Change phenomenon’.
- Raj Basu, Help Tourism