Green forum drives tourism, the watery way

AHMEDABAD: If you thought ponds are just pools of stagnant water used for washing clothes and favourite places for breeding mosquitoes, you are in for a pleasant surprise.

Ecotourism will soon change that perception. Weaving a flowery tale around the water bodies, South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) has identified an action plan for habitat restoration in East Kolkata wetlands through community-based sustainable development programme for 1,20,000 dwellers of both terrestrial and coastal regions.

Tourists would be drawn to such projects and would experience the rural feel, apart from fishing and boating, sightseeing and a stay in the rural setting.

SAFE is also in talks with ICICI Prudential and Max New York Life Insurance for providing cover to the fisherman whose livelihood depends on the ponds, at a low premium.

SAFE believes that a cooperative model would be ideally suited in West Bengal, the state dotted by lakhs of ponds, as it would equip the local population with skills to manage their ponds.

"Two Bheris or ponds have been identified for the same, namely, Natar Bheri (750 bhigas) and Sukantanagar Bheri (350 bhigas). We, as an organisation, will train the local people in terms of catering, marketing, advertising, finance and maintenance of accounts," says SAFE Chair-Research Dipayan Dey.

SAFE claims that such a model is being tried in the country for the first time. "This will truly be an ecotourism model, wherein people will be benefited. Though the state government runs a similar model in the wetlands, but those are on paper," said SAFE research officer Amrita Chatterjee.

Named Sabuj Paryatan, the project will soon acquire funding from DFID worth a few lakhs, though the official figure was not disclosed.

"Each Bheri would require a funding of Rs 7 lakh. Though the wetlands are spread across 12,500 hectares, we would commence the project with two only," adds Dr Dey. SAFE is hopeful that the 16-month project would start yielding good results and profit from fourteenth month onwards. "The funds are to be used for the basic infrastructure, which is just 50% of the total resources. The remaining 50% is in the terms of contribution by the community; their services and manpower," says Ms Chatterjee.

Fishermen and women in the wetlands earn Rs 700-800 a month. SAFE said that the plight of fisherwomen is such that they have to work as maids in households for a few months in a year. The area does not have even the basic facilities and infrastructure like sanitation, medical help. Poverty also leads people to commit suicide at times.

The Sunderban Delta region in West Bengal, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO is currently characterised by phenomenal levels of pollution, anthropogenic stress and a general lack of responsiveness to community problems.