Accidental tourists

Accidental tourists

Seventy-five percent of Maharashtra’s forest cover lies here. Four of the five national parks and sanctuaries in the state, which are home and host to rare wildlife species and the tiger, are located here. Places like Pachmarhi, Kanha and Khajuraho in adjoining Madhya Pradesh, too, are at a convenient distance. Heritage, religious and historical, there is no dearth of places.

Welcome to the tourist desert of Maharashtra. Tourism is waiting to be tapped in Vidharba, where the chorus for a separate state surfaces from time to time. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) does not even have a leaflet to introduce you to the tourist spots in Vidarbha.

Thus in Vidarbha, it’s best to make your own arrangements. The best of places here (see box) may not have proper access, communication facilities, good accommodation, an easy booking system and information and services from the concerned government agencies.

Take the temple complex at Markanda in Gadchiroli district, which is known as Vidarbha’s Khajuraho. But it doesn’t have a proper approach road, accommodation or eating facilities. Ministers visit the temple and announce funds for it, but rarely deliver. The idols are not properly preserved, and several of them have already been stolen.

Tourist traffic also misses the picturesque hill station at Chikhaldara in Amravati district. Situated in the last of Satpura ranges, the famous Melghat tiger project with around 75 tigers is also in the neighbourhood. Yet, MTDC’s dossier on hill resorts in Maharashtra only recently included Chikhaldara.

‘‘We have the most saleable icon called the tiger in Vidarbha at projects like Melghat and Tadoba. That alone can pull in a sizeable number of tourists,’’ says Govind Daga, former president of Vidarbha Economic Development (VED) Council, an industrialists’ body which has prepared a blueprint for tourism development in Vidarbha.

The list is long: the Sevagram and Pavnar ashrams, Baba Amte’s Anandwan, archeologically important sites of the Wakataka period in the Mansar tahsil of Nagpur district... It’s not just the tourists who’re missing out: tour operators say the state government is losing nearly Rs 25 crore a year. ‘‘With a projected tourist traffic of approximately 2.5 lakh people, 75,000 people would get jobs,’’ adds Vilas Kale, VED president.

The State government is quick to cite the Forest Conservation Act and lack of funds as culprits. ‘‘We were always told that land could not be made available since most of it has been cornered by the Act. Thus, we could not set up tourist complexes near these places,’’ M H Zanzad, Regional Manager of MTDC told The Indian Express.

However, Kale contests the claim. ‘‘Who stopped the government from acquiring land on the periphery of these spots,’’ he asks.

‘‘Only last year, we were made land available at various places. And now with the Central government clearing some funds for these projects, we are coming up with some complexes within a short period,’’ Zanzad informed. ‘‘For Khindsi and Khekra Nala projects, the tenders would be out soon.’’

The MTDC has planned a tourist complex at the reputed meteor lake at Lonar in Buldana district. The Central government too seems to have risen out of its slumber. Last year, it sanctioned 11 projects and also released funds as well. Perhaps, those who start to visit Vidharba won’t be accidental tourists after all.