Thirteen yoga and herbal villages will be developed in the State. Issuing this direction while chairing a meet ingwith officials concerned in Dehradun on Monday, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that Yoga and herbal villages should be developed at Gairsain and Gwaldam in Chamoli district, Hanol and Devvan in Dehradun, Sarnaul and Harshil in Uttarkashi, Munsyari and Chaukodi in Pithoragarh, Mayawati in Champawat, Jageshwar and Kakadighat in Almora, Khirsu in Pauri and Madannegi in Tehri. The CM directed officials to ensure that the local youths benefit through employment and income generation activities from this initiative.
Rawat said that dense herbal plantation should be undertaken in the selected villages. This task can be executed with the help of Van Panchayats. Additionally, the home-stay concept should also be introduced in these villages.
The scope for developing a small reservoir and encouraging water-tourism at Kakadighat in Almora should also be considered. The road from Bhowali to Khairna should be named Baba Neem Karoli Marg while the road from Khairna to Almora road should be named Vivekananda Marg, directed the chief minister.
Principal secretary Dr Umakant Panwar, secretary MC Joshi, additional secretary Ashish Joshi and officials of Tourism and AYUSH were also among those present in the meeting.