Rajesh Kumar Behera in Kendrapara(Orissa)
To promote eco tourism and to raise revenue for the district from the eco tourism , the district administration has planned to organise winter and summer camp at Batighar (light h
ouse) and Hukitola , said the District Magistrate , Sisir Kanta Panda.
In this regard a meeting has recently been organized by the district administration with the state forest department .The forest department has also given green signal to the proposal to boost eco-tourism in the district, added District Magistrate, Panda .
The district administration is going to give a proposal in this regard to the Director of State Tourism.
To take the tourists to Light House and Hukitola, the district administration has planned to keep a mechanized boat, in which about 40 tourists can ferry at a time to the winter and summer camp at Hukitola and Batighar, at Kharanashi jetty.
Notably ,Hukitola palace, which was once, gained a name and fame for the most important transit point in the state during the Pre-Independence era and where the Britishers had operated their maritime trade and business, remains in a state of dilapidate especially due to lack of maintenance by the State government as well as the central government
The Hukitola palace, which is more than 250 years old stands tall , speaks and reminds about its glorious past of colonialism in eastern India and also the rich maritime tradition of the state .The port and palace started shrinking its importance in 1924 when the Britishers established a port at False point. And later, in the year 1962 the central government established Paradip port which marked the dooms of its importance. However, till today the fishermen of the region kept using it for all time.
In course of time the windows and doors and its accessories inside the palace started vanishing due to the theft made by the locals. Miscreants made away with the important parts of the drowned vessel.
If the proposal would get green signal then it would be renovated and would preserve for posterity ,said intellectual masses.
Beside Hukitola ,the 125-feet high petrol gas operated light house near the port to facilitate ships movement would allure more tourists to throng to the district, stated Panda, the District Magistrate.
nd the officials of Missile Test Range (MTR) of Wheeler island not to venture into the sea, its beaches and its nearby mangrove forests after the missile test in order to collect the remnants of missile , but the inhabitants of far flung Talachua ,Rangani ,Dhamara and Chandipur used to go to the sea and its nearby areas by risking their lives to collect the remnants of missile with an aim to get a meager amount of rupees from the middlemen by selling the metals after extracting from the missile .
The heavy exchange of fire, which broke out in the dense forest of Ramnaguda area, about 85 km from here, has been continuing till this evening, they said.
