Ashok Chandra wants change of people’s attitude towards tourists
Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda on Sunday said the neglect of the Centre towards the State’s tourism sector has again been manifested as no city of the State has been included in the Prasad and Hriday schemes recently announced by the Union Government. He also rued the attitude of the people towards the tourists and called for a change in the way people treat tourists in the State.
Panda was speaking as the chief guest at a workshop on ‘Geoheritage and Geotourism Potential of Odisha’ organised here by the Society of Geoscientists and Allied Technologists (SGAT) in association with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
He said the State Government is planning to promote the tourism potentials of other parts of the State in addition to the Golden Triangle. He suggested to the SGAT to submit an action plan for identification and conservation of such sites.
INTACH advisor Prof Dr Rajshekhar Reddy presented a keynote address on Geoheritage and Geopark sites with the historical background in national and international levels with a special reference to Odisha. Convenor of INTACH AB Tripathy highlighted the importance of Geoheritage sites.
Geoheritage is defined as those components of Geodiversity which have importance for human purposes other than resource exploitation. The main components of Geoheritage are Geodiversity, Geoculture, Geotourism and education.
Odisha is endowed with numbers of interesting geological features created by natural geological processes over last 4,600 million years. Out of 29 such identified heritage features located in different parts of the country, only one is located in Nomira in Keonjhar district of Odisha which displays pillow lava structures. However, there are many more such natural heritage sites in Odisha which need to be identified, preserved and declared as national monuments.
The workshop was attended by scientists from various organisations including the GSI, State Directorate Of Geology, Utkal University, Environmental Society of Odisha, and CGWB. SGAT president Dr SK Sarangi welcomed the participants.