S K Chakrabarti, Director Vivada & Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Retd)
West Bengal, a unique state with the varied diversity of the fertile plains and the mighty hills, colorful history and cultural heritage, flourishing agriculture and oldest industries, luxuriant forests and teeming wildlife is a land beautiful. In this wonderland traversed by the life sustaining Ganges culture echoes, tradition speaks, beauty enthralls and diversity delights. Bounded by the snow clad Himalayas to the North and the endless stretches of sandy beaches lashed by the waves of the mighty Bay of Bengal to the South, West Bengal is the only State in this wonderful country, India, to have so wide a variation.
The state of West Bengal is a kaleidoscope of beautiful landscapes, magnificent historical Sites, rich cultural heritage and royal reminiscences, misty mountain retreats, colorful people and festivities. The rivers and the mountains, the archaeological monuments and the religious landmarks, the forests and wildlife are all pointers to West Bengal being a state of attraction, the ultimate destination tourism.
There also are the largest mangroves, the Sunderbans, the home of the Royal Bengal Tiger, a UNESCO Heritage Site where plants, animals and man adapt themselves to the refractory site in very many different ways. Though this land beautiful has so much to offer to the visitors to become a tourism hotspot in the world, tourism has not flourished to the desired level so far. It calls for an urgent need and desire for both the Government and the industry to make commitments to ensure the prosperity of tourism, one of the world’s largest industries for 200 million jobs and 10% of the global GDP. There have been setbacks from time to time globally to tourism industry from terrorism, war, economic slowdown, natural calamities like sunami and earthquakes and bird flue and SARS and other epidemics like plague. But each time tourism has bounced back due to the lertness of the respective Governments and the industry. However, a time has now come when we have to consider whether we leave the desired growth of travel and tourism to chance? Jeane Claude Baumgartner, the President of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) revealing a new blue print for new tourism in the tourism summit in Villamoura, Portugal, said, “What is needed is a new vision and strategy involving a partnership of all stake holders, - public and private to turn future challenges into opportunities”. WTTC projects that a quarter of a billion people will work in travel and tourism worldwide by the end of a decade with the prospect of sustainable growth at 4.6% per annum.
Let us, therefore, see what have we to do in Bengal in this context. Despite being the jewel in the crown, West Bengal is a relatively unknown entity, not only in the field of international tourism but also in the domestic circuit of eco tourism as well. Do we stop here or try and make the challenge to convert West Bengal into a tourism hub for which the fundamental conditions require to be stressed and met.
Govt. must recognize travel trade as a top priority;
Tourism industry must balance economics with people, culture and environment ,
All parties must share the pursuit of long-term growth and prosperity.
It is the third issue above, which is the crux of the present paper. All parties desiring to showcase West Bengal in the tourism map of the world must join together and play a vital role in elevating this state as a tourism destination, and that includes a complete cross section of the society. All the stakeholders must
Collaborate on information requirements and spread available information,
Develop mutual respect and confidence among performers,
Keep up with the Government policies on tourism including those for protection of environments, forests and cultural heritage,
Prepare sustainable master plans for the entire gamut of destinations.
There is no doubt that there have been significant efforts from various fronts to develop the Tourism sector in West Bengal for quite many years. But they have remained isolated efforts of non-collective endeavours. Government in the Tourism and Forest Departments have initiated Digha, Bakkhali and Frasergunj to highlight sea beach tourism, Santiniketan to showcase heritage tourism, Darjeeling and Kalimpong with the narrow gauge Railway line as hill tourism and Sajnekhali with Sunderbans and Madarihat as wildlife tourism centers. The Forest Rest Houses strategically located at very beautiful sites like Lava, Loleygaon with trekking routes have been spectacular efforts more so with the Forest Development Corporation developing additional areas like Murti, Borodabri, Holong, Rongpo, Sukhiapokhri offer beautiful accommodations but very inadequate in number to meet the seasonal crowd. The private entrepreneurs have also been coming in of late, particularly in Digha and new sites close to it, Sunderbans, Darjeeling and Dooars. Inland water tourism is being called upon to add more and more verve, vigour and variety.
But despite isolated efforts of all these popular resorts and activities, West Bengal is not a very important tourism circuit even within India not to speak of International tourism maps. Considering that there has been a spurt of tourism activities in India, Kolkata and West Bengal have been languishing as a rather insignificant tourism hub. West Bengal is hardly present in International Tourism Marts while many other states invariably present their wares and the success of Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu& Kashmir must encourage our state to publicize our tourism destinations. It is time that Government bridges the gap by providing marketing support and subsidies to smaller and lesser-known destinations.
It is imperative now for the private entrepreneurs to involve themselves whole-heartedly in developing the industry with special reference to eco-tourism. Government should also control reckless development of tourism in and around sensitive areas, especially for Wildlife Tourism. All the interested parties who want West Bengal to soon become a favourite Tourism destination must come under a common umbrella to develop, foster, encourage, publicise and support the various people friendly tourism activities and destinations. Let this be the initiation of a clarion call for those who love Bengal, live in Bengal and elsewhere, irrespective of caste, creed, language and religion to come together and build an organisation whose soul objective will be to promote tourism in West Bengal. This is Bengal calling Come let us all join in and create our Bengal with the glorious past as a tourism hub par excellence.
