By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 2 May: Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan chaired a meeting with officials at the Secretariat on Friday to review and promote eco-tourism activities across Uttarakhand. During the meeting, he directed officials to actively explore greater potential for eco-tourism throughout the state. He noted that a large portion of Uttarakhand’s land area is covered by forests, offering immense opportunity to promote eco-tourism. He emphasised that community participation should also be enhanced in these activities to ensure inclusive development.
The Chief Secretary directed that an annual activity calendar be prepared to ensure timely commencement of all tourism-related initiatives and that projects be executed in alignment with this calendar. He stated that eco-tourism can be promoted through small, sustainable efforts that preserve the natural environment. He instructed officials to expand activities such as forest walks and nature trails. To facilitate mountaineering and trekking, he recommended developing a single-window system through which domestic and international visitors can obtain all necessary permits via a unified application process. The Forest Department was also directed to identify and increase the number of camping sites across the state.
Bardhan instructed officials to set ambitious targets for tourist inflow and revenue generation. He stressed that future plans should be developed with these targets in mind. He further directed that instead of maintaining separate websites for different forest divisions and tourism schemes, a single integrated portal should be created. This would allow tourists to access comprehensive information about all tourism activities in one place, simplifying their experience.
Present at the meeting were Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Van Panchayat) BP Gupta, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ranjan Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests PK Patro, and other senior officials.
