Lucknow: A new eco-tourism policy is in the offing in Uttar Pradesh, as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the officials to set up an Eco-Tourism Board. The tourism department will be its nodal agency, sources said on Monday.
The board will mainly consist of ministers of the departments concerned, additional chief secretary, principal secretary, director general and director and experts of the Indian Forest Service. Besides irrigation, forest, AYUSH and rural developments, other wings of the government concerned with tourism will be part of the board.
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As part of the policy, youths of a particular area, where tourism flourishes, will be selected and trained as nature guides. And the villages, located in the midst of the forests inhabited by wild animals, will also be settled. For this, the consent of the villagers will be taken, sources further said. The lowland region of the state is very rich in water resources and dense forest which are home to tigers, elephants, deer, crocodiles, dolphins and rare birds. There is also a plan to develop the Fossil Park of Sonbhadra into a major tourist spot as it houses 150-million-year-old fossils and the history of the dawn of human civilisation.
Aside from that, the government is all set to improve the Kukrail picnic spot, the centre of breeding alligators. Every year a large number of tourists from different parts of the country and abroad visit this place to see the research work on crocodiles.