-State government to promote forests to woo visitors with lodges & safaris in parks, tiger reserves

ANEETA SHARMA

A restaurant nestles on the banks of a placid lake in Hazaribagh national park. The government wants to develop such places with private participation

Ranchi, July 21: The state forests would be used to promote tourism in a major way.

The tourism department is trying to get into public-private partnerships with well-known names in the field of eco-tourism and develop a project according to the demands of tourists.

The State Assembly today passed the Guwahati Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Bill, 2008, which aims at saving the city from flash flood by preserving, protecting, conserving, regulating and maintaining Sarusola, Borsola, Silsako and Deepor Beels of the Guwahati metropolitan development area. The legislation seeks to develop these wetlands as natural water reservoirs.

Warangal, July 6: Backpackers who want to trek through deep forests and nature lovers who love to slowly sail across waters are flocking to the district, which is fast turning into a favourite eco and adventure tourism destination. Enchanting locations such as the Lakhnavaram Lake, the Pakhal wildlife sanctuary, and the mysterious Pandavulaguttalu are attracting hundreds of visitors every day.

Flip through a travel brochure, and you're likely to see pictures of sun and sand in Southeast Asia, of luxury lodges in the Serengeti, of scuba diving in the bejewelled coral reefs of the Caribbean, but what the brochure won't reveal is the environmental cost of your trip. That beach in Thailand may once have housed precious mangroves, which were ripped up to make way for your hotel.

Kolleru lake would be developed at a cost of nearly Rs 860 crore over five years as the international non-governmental agency, Wetland International South Asia, has prepared proposals to that effect at the behest of the state government. Of the total cost proposed for development, a whopping Rs 500 crore has been allocated for water management works.

: Sri Lanka Tourism in its efforts to promote ecotourism in the country yesterday joined hands with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources releasing 8 baby elephants to the wild. The baby elephants who were orphans and brought up at the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe was released to Udawalawe National Park which is estimated to have 400 wild elephants.

Mount Kilimanjaro's lions face extinction at the spear point of Maasai cattle herders, warn conservation experts. Once common in rural Kenya, fewer than 150 lions now roam the eco-tourism haven in and around Amboseli National Park, just northwest of Tanzania's famous mountain. Since 2003, local cattle herders have killed 63 lions, often in retaliation for lost livestock, according to National Geographic Society conservationists.