Nestling in sprawling natural environment can’t get any better than this. With autumn season in full bloom, the footfall at the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary has witnessed a major boost this year. The scenic wildlife sanctuary, 30km from Jamshedpur, is abuzz with tourists spending quality time amid natural surroundings.
The forest department’s focus on infrastructure development has played a key role in increasing revenue as well as the footfall this time. The Dalma sanctuary, known for its scenic beauty and large presence of the elephants has witnessed a gradual improvement on the infrastructure front with setting up of mud houses, cafeteria, watch tower and rest rooms.
“As per our initial calculations, the footfall has increased around 25 percent in compare to last year. The improvement in infrastructure has definitely helped us to attract tourists from across the State and neighbouring places. We are taking every step to improve facilities at the sanctuary,” said deputy conservator of forest (DCF), Dalma, Chandramouli Prasad Sinha. He said that facilities like Mud House and Cafeteria is proving a major boost to attract tourists.
Sinha informed that in association with the Eco Development Committees in the villages, the cafeteria and mud houses are being operated.
Dalma sprawls over an area of 193 square kilometres and houses 85 villages inside the enclave and 51 villages in its periphery. Dalma is frequently visited people of Odisha and Kolkata. In fact a large number of foreigners also visited Dalma last year.
“We want people to stay closer to the nature. We have guest houses, thatched roofs made of hay and bamboo to keep the huts warm during winter and cool during summer. Guests are served food prepared from organic vegetables grown in the farm and organic milk, said another official.
Dalma range officer R P Singh said that the efforts taken by the forest department have helped them to spread greater awareness on environment conservation too. Tourists from Jharkhand, Bengal, Odisha and Chhatisgarh visit Dalma sanctuary and prefer to stay at the Pinderbera forest guest house.
Inaugurated by late Sanjay Gandhi in 1975, the sanctuary is 10 kms from the city, to the north of Subarnarekha River. About 6 km from east to west, the sanctuary extends over 193 sq km in to the thick forests of the Dalma mountain range, which rise to 3000 ft.
Accessible by road, Dalma is famous for its herds of wild elephants, barking deer's, sloth bears, leopards, porcupines and tigers.
