Responsible eco-tourism comes to Pathiramanal

 
After over a decade's struggle to protect Pathiramanal Island in Vembanad Lake from being handed over to tourism industry giants, the Muhamma grama panchayat will finally start its own eco-tourism project on the island on August 14. The inauguration of the project, titled the Pathiramanal Biodiversity Conservation and Responsible Eco-Tourism Development Project, would not be like normal inaugurals. Over 1000 country boats carrying fishermen from Muhamma and surrounding localities would coverage at the island and sow seeds, plant saplings and all that was needed for mangroves around the island.

(Patihiramanal, a small island in the backwaters of Alappuzha, is a haven for hundreds of rare birds migrating from different parts of the world. Surrounded by Vembanad Lake, stretching from Alappuzha to Kochi and Kayamkulam Lake, Pathiramanal is accessible only by boat). Announcing this s at a seminar on the project jointly organized by the grama panchayat and the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), Thiruvananthapuram, at Muhamma, near here on Tuesday, Finance Minister T.M.Thomas Issac, who was also the local MLA, said the Central Government had agreed for a grant of Rs.5 crore for the project, which was the first of its kind initiated by a grama panchayat anywhere in the country. The state government had already set aside Rs.50lakh in the recent budget for the project.

 
(The Hindu, 6th  June  2007)