As the peak summer tourist season in Uttarakhand is just round the corner, several camp sites and Heritage Trails in the hills and valleys of the hill State are being spruced up for trekkers and adventure-loving visitors.
One of the most visited is the fascinating ‘Jim Corbett Heritage Trail’ developed in ‘Chhoti Haldwani’ village near Kaladhungi, about 30 kilometres from the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) in the Kumaon hills.
Developed as part of Uttarakhand’s keen efforts to promote and strengthen Community Based Tourism (CBT), this two and a half kilometer long trail was inaugurated by Elliot Morley, Minister of State for Environment and Climate Change, Government of UK.
Chhoti Haldwani, Jim Corbett’s favourite place, is described at length in Corbett’s book, ‘My India’.
The CBT project members guide visitors along this heritage trail, run a souvenir shop, have home stays in two families, maintain an information kiosk and have recently started tours for areas adjoining Kaladhungi.
Another attractive and informative CBT project is ‘The Chipko Heritage Trail’ developed in Reni village on the outskirts of the Nanda Devi National Park. The trail takes visitors to the Fir forests where residents of Reni village first embraced Fir trees under the leadership of Gaura Devi marking the beginning of the Chipko movement three decades ago.
The villagers guide visitors along the trail and maintain the Gaura Devi Interpretation Centre at Reni. The Centre for Ecotourism and Sustainable livelihoods (CESl) was established by the State Government as the ‘Nodal Institute’ for the promotion of Eco-tourism and Community Based Tourism (CBT) within the State. People of lata village have worked well to encourage ecotourism in the Nanda Devi region. The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi, imparted training to forty school dropouts for mountain tourism development. After the training, they formed a company by the name of “Mountain Shepherds” for ecotourism promotion. To make it more customer-oriented, they organised four experimental, free eco-treks for women tourists from various parts of the world.
CESl is situated at Chunakhan in Nainital District in the vicinity of Corbett Tiger Reserve.Its mandate is to promote awareness, training and research on eco-tourism so as to assist communities and indigenous people in addressing livelihood issues. Village communities around Corbett and other forest areas have been linked to these projects and visitors get the added advantage of enjoying CBT besides visiting the national park.
Campsites in Suakholi (between Mussoorie and Dhanaulti) and at Maldevta and Mahendrapur (around 16 km from Dehradun via Raipur) are proving extremely popular. Camp Redstone at Mahendrapur beyond Maldevta has already begun receiving the summer groups.Rafting groups are also coming in to Shivpuri and Kaudiyala near Rishikesh.
In the CBT, tourism projects are owned and managed by village communities. In a typical CBT project, the community provides all services including lodging, food, guiding and crafts sales.
However, though the tremendous potential of ecotourism in the State has yet to be realised. Dr. Harshvanti Bisht, involved actively in promoting ecotourism in Uttarakhand, says people and organisations in the State needed to come forward in implementing the concept in its entirety.
Bisht, a well-known mountaineer, says that with six national parks, five wildlife sanctuaries, and a Biosphere reserve, this State is highly suitable for ecotourism.
“Uttarakhand has a vast variety of topography, climatic zones and wildlife,” says Dr Bisht. “It also has the unique privilege of being the source region of the two great river systems - Ganga and Yamuna -and is home to lakes, forests ,meadows and mountains”.
Bisht believes that natural splendour and cultural heritage are important elements in the concept of ecotourism and Uttarakhand has the perfect synthesis of the two.