The State Government has been “relooking” into some of the provisions in the guidelines for regulation of the visit of foreign tourists to the areas inhabited and frequented by the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) such as Bondas, Dongarias and Kandhas.
Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda revealed this while replying a question in the Assembly on Wednesday. “The guidelines on the tours of foreign tourists to tribal areas are not meant to restrict them, rather to regulate their visits,” he said.
Rejecting allegations that the Tourism Department's guidelines are resulting in a decline in foreign tourist flow to the State, Panda claimed that the number of the tourists from abroad has instead increased.
While 64,719 foreign tourists had visited the State in 2012, the figure increased to 66,675 in 2013 and 71,426 in 2014, he said.
Stating that the State Government has been trying to augment infrastructural facilities in tribals-dominated tourist places, Panda said a committee headed by the Home Secretary has, meanwhile, held two meetings to relook the guidelines.
The Minister informed that senior officials of the State police's intelligence wing and Tourism and Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development Department are members of the committee, which would take a final decision on possible changes in the guidelines.
The Government on July 26, 2013 implemented the guidelines to regulate the movement of foreign tourists in tribals-dominated areas in view of a case in the National Human Rights Commission. A petition was filed in the NHRC on charge of prevalence of a “Human Safari” in these areas.
The PVTG communities mostly reside in the 13 tribals-dominated districts, Koraput, Malakangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Boudh, Balangir and Subarnapur.
Ethnic tourism has been a major attraction for foreign tourists in Odisha, the
home to 62 tribal communities, including 13 PVTGs. some of which belong to the Old Stone Age and live in isolation on hilltops.
Tour operators said that the restriction on the visit of foreign tourists to tribal areas was made stricter after Maoists had abducted two Italian nationals Claudio Colangelo and Paolo Bosusco from Kandhamal district on March 17, 2012.
“Odisha has been losing a major tourist market. In all other States, foreign tourists are allowed to visit tribal areas. There is no reason why they should not be allowed in Odisha,” said Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odessa chairman JK Mohanty.