www.kalimpong.info

The WBFDC cottages in Loleygaon, which are a big hit with the tourists. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Kalimpong, Dec. 6: Eco-tourism initiatives have conquered the hill winter, continuing to fill the coffers of the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation (WBFDC) even during what is otherwise called the lean season.

M.S. Murli, divisional manager, Kalimpong forest division, said winter bookings in all its 11 tourist facilities in the subdivision have been very encouraging this year. “We hope to do business worth about Rs 40 lakh this winter. We made Rs 85 lakh in the last fiscal, and hope to cross Rs 1 crore this year,” Murli added.

The corporation has most of its wilderness camps and nature resorts in the Kalimpong subdivision, all located in the pristine middle and lower hill forests. The latest place to be brought on its tourism radar is Paren, near the Bhutan border, about 110 km from Siliguri.

“We have two cottages there, and are constructing another two. They should be operational by next summer,” said Murli. The WBFDC also has resorts in Gorubathan, Jaldhaka, Lava, Loleygaon, Mongpong, Samsing, Rongpo and a few other places.

All these spots are already very popular with domestic tourists and now the corporation is looking to woo foreigners. For this, the WBFDC recently hosted a team of tour operators from Delhi to acquaint them with the places.

“All the operators who were here cater to high-end foreign tourists. They were very impressed with the locations and the facilities available there. They will be getting back to our managing director very soon,” Murli said.

Besides foreign tourists, the corporation is also targeting corporate clientele. “We have constructed spacious conference rooms at our resorts in Lava and Loleygoan which can be used to hold corporate meetings. These rooms even have LCD projectors for power-point presentations,” the divisional manager said.

Environmentalists, however, have cautioned the corporation against going overboard. “As long as the WBFDC sticks to its stated objective of encouraging regulated tourism without leaving any scar on the environment, it should not be anybody’s problem,” said one of them.

Dhakal with his hydel power set. Picture by Suman Tamang

Siliguri, Dec. 5: The youth, who lit up a remote village near Kalimpong using his mini-hydel project, is finally getting recognition.

The Darjeeling Initiative (a youth forum) and the Darjeeling Press Guild have decided to present the first Shasheesh Prasad Memorial Citizen of the Year Award to 26-year-old Bharat Dhakal. Dhakal has used his project to provide electricity to 13 households in his village, Lingsey, over the last two years.

The award, named after a Darjeeling-based architect and social activist who died of cancer last year, will be given once a year to a youth from the hills for significant contribution towards society, said members of Darjeeling Initiative, which organises the Darjeeling Carnival every year.

On December 16, while the carnival is on, the award comprising a silver citation and Rs 10,000 in cash will be handed over to Dhakal, said Samir Sharma of the Darjeeling-based youth forum.

The carnival begins on Friday.

“We decided to give away the award during the carnival as Prasad had been one of our major patrons,” said Suraj Sharma, an organiser.

Kalimpong, Dec. 4: An extended Kalimpong Carol Festival will be the highlight of the Christmas celebrations in the hill town this time.

Various choir groups are holding daily practice sessions, and the town is gearing up for the festive season. Christmas business, though, is expected to pick up only around the middle of this month. Early indications are that the business will be good this year.

“Over the last 10 years, the business has grown steadily, and that trend should continue this year as well,” said a businessman.

While the markets will be flooded with residents of the area prior to Christmas, tourists from north and western India who normally arrive here during the festive season leading up to the New Year should contribute significantly to the local economy.

“High-end hotels have already received a good number of bookings. Even the more modest tourist lodges should do good business during the festive season,” said Sanjay Mintri, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kalimpong (Horak). To ring in the Yuletide spirit, the Kalimpong United Christian Minorities Society will organise a five-day choir festival, beginning December 18.

“This will be the fourth edition of the festival, but unlike previous years when it was only a one-day affair, we decided to hold an extended fest this time,” said Paul Prakash, chief coordinator of the organising committee.

To project the essence of Christmas and create a festive mood, the arterial Main Road will be decorated with buntings, banners, lights and, of course, the Christmas Tree. The main events will be held at Damber Chowk in the heart of the town. The Scottish University Mission Institution will organise a gospel meeting on December 15, while the Don Bosco Job-Oriented Institute at 16 Mile will hold a celebration on December 20.

Kalimpong, Dec. 3: The Himalayan Forest Villagers’ Organisation will gherao the office of the divisional manager, West Bengal Forest Development Corporation, here on Tuesday demanding that the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2006 be passed in the on-going winter session of Parliament.

The demonstration will be part of the nationwide pressure campaign for the bill.

The bill, which was tabled in both the houses of Parliament on May 23, envisages granting rights of forest lands to residents of fringe villages. These lands are already occupied by villagers residing in forests.

It also allows the forest residents to access forest products essential for their survival and livelihoods.

“Tuesday will be the second part of our gherao campaign. Earlier, we demonstrated in front of forest range offices on November 23,” Prem Khawas, the president of the forest villagers’ organisation, told The Telegraph.

On December 8, about 30 of its members will also leave for Delhi where they will join their counterparts from other parts of the country, who, under the banner of National Shramjivi Manch, have been sitting in dharna outside Parliament since the start of the winter session.

There are 56 forest villages in the Kalimpong subdivision with a total population of about 5,000 people, Khawas added.

The present bill is an improvement on the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill tabled last year. “The original bill was flawed in that it sought to ignore a significant number of non-tribal forest-dependent people like those living in the Himalayan tracts,” said Khawas.

The revised bill, which was tabled by a 30-member joint parliamentary committee (JPC), expands its coverage from tribals to “other traditional forest dwellers”.

“Due to the pressure exerted by organisations like ours, the original bill was referred to the JPC last December, which accepted our argument that non-tribal forest villagers had never been given their due rights as forest-dwellers,” said the organisation president.

Other changes in the revised bill are the removal of the earlier cut-off date of 1980, allowing claims by even those dwellers who occupied forest land until 2005 and abolition of the upper limit of areas of 2.5 hectares.