Tourism and Forest and the district panchayat called by Minister for
Home and Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in Thiruvananthapuram recently
decided to exploit eco-tourism potentials of the Silent Valley and
Mannarkad forest areas of the district.The meeting which was called at
the request of Deputy Speaker Jose Baby, who represents the Mannarkad
constituency in the Assembly, decided to establish
interpretation-cum-ticketing centres at Mukkali, Attappady and
Siruvani with state-of-the-art facilities.The Forest Department was
directed to take necessary steps to get permission to use the old
unused buildings owned by the Kerala State Electricity Board for
converting them to provide accommodation for tourists in Mukkali.It
was also decided to liaison with the Irrigation Department for
transferring their unutilised buildings at Siruvani to the Forest
Department for providing accommodation for tourists in the forest and
dam areas.The meeting entrusted the Forest Department to prepare
eco-tourism projects for Silent Valley, Siruvani and Attappady within
a month. The projects will be implemented with financial assistance
from the Department of Tourism and the Attappady Hill Area Development
Society (AHADS).The Deputy Speaker told The Hindu that there was high
potential for development of eco-tourism in Silent Valley, Siruvani,
Kanjirapuzha and Attappady Hills of the Western Ghats.Mr. Baby said
that in the absence of infrastructure facilities like facilitation
centre, interpretation, ticketing, transportation and accommodation,
tourists were not able to reach these beautiful areas gifted by
nature.If the Forest and Tourism departments could jointly create
required facilities, these destinations could attract large number of
tourists, both domestic and international.These projects would also
cater to the employment needs of the tribal people who were now
dependent on forest resources only, Mr. Baby said.
The Hindu, 15th December 2008
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