Home-Stay Options Near Odisha Wildlife Sanctuaries On Anvil

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is planning to implement a ‘home-stay’ policy for places near wildlife sanctuaries and eco-tourism destinations like Similipal, Bhitarkanika, Chilika, Daringibadi, Satkosia and other places.

The government gave a directive to the officials of the Tourism and Forest departments to work out such a policy on Wednesday.

Chief Secretary AK Tripathy said the government intends to develop eco-tourism along the lines of market demand creation and private sector linkages.

Tripathy also directed the departments to make ‘Odisha destinations’ popular among different travel and tour operators in the world market.

Development of eco-sites with facilities like sports, trekking, wildlife watching, cycling, boating, jungle safari, photography, canopy walk and farm visits activities will be taken up.

At present, there are around 298 tents and rooms with a capacity of accommodating around 800 persons per day in the eco-sites across the state. The projects employ around 1,000 people from local communities.

The website www.ecotourodisha.com is popular as well and has received 11,52,091 ‘Hits’ from April 2016 till date.