Dehradun: Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan has given instructions to make innovative efforts to promote forest tourism in the rich biodiversity Uttarakhand state and to develop forest rest houses of selected places as eco and nature camps for the development of eco tourism. The Chief Secretary has said that the Union Home Ministry will be requested regarding the proposal to open Nanda Devi peak for mountaineering expeditions. The Chief Secretary has instructed the officials to review the mountaineering policy of the state and make a new policy as per the need and to implement the rules of trekking soon and also to operate the single window system for permission related to it till 15 November.
Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan, while presiding over the meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC) constituted for the development of eco-tourism, held in the auditorium of the Secretariat on Tuesday, said that to realize the better possibilities of development of eco-tourism in the state, work should be done speedily on the 25 new schemes identified. These places should be developed on the lines of Jabarkhet model and attractive facilities should be arranged for the tourists who love forests. So that forest tourists stay here for a long time and return with a better experience.
The Chief Secretary also directed to work in a time-bound manner on the plan to redevelop Chaurasi Kutiya, famous as the Beatles Ashram near Rishikesh, from the tourism point of view. He said that important documents and other references related to this ashram should be collected from Rishikesh and Kolkata and arrangements should be made to display them.
In the meeting, Chief Forest Conservator P.K. Patro gave information about the progress of eco-tourism development projects and proposed schemes.
Secretary Forest C Ravishankar, Additional Secretary Vineet Kumar, Additional Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Vivek Pandey, Chief Conservator of Forests PK Patro, Additional Director Tourism Poonam Chand and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
