Dehradun, October 6
Two travel companies operating in Uttarakhand bagged the prestigious Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) Wildlife Tourism Awards, held for the first time, at a glittering ceremony in Delhi on September 30.

A ‘machhan’ at Camp Forktail Creek at Bhakrakot village

Selected for two categories out of total seven awards, Village Ways, active in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary (Almora), and Bageshwar got the Wildlife Tourism Community Initiative of the Year 2010.

The John Wakefield Memorial Award for most Inspirational Ecolodge of the year 2010 went to Camp Forktail Creek operating in the Jim Corbett National Park.

Founded by a group of esteemed tour operators, TOFT has now expanded to become a pioneering international ‘collective action’ campaign, run by travel professionals to advocate, endorse and support more responsible use of wilderness areas in India and the Indian subcontinent.

Risal village

Mike Pandey, Chairman of the awards, said, “In a rapidly changing world, our planet’s natural environment has suffered the most. Our wildlife and natural resources are all disappearing faster than we ever imagined.

“Conservation is crucial. For conservation to become effective, it requires commitment, political will and financial resources. Enlightened eco-tourism is one way of ensuring not only conservation, but also a sustainable and non-extractive source of revenue generation for both local communities and the government”.

Dalar guest house near Binsar

Ratnamala Kapoor, Founder Director of Village Ways, had set up two guest houses and one campsite in three villages of Saryu, which lies in the middle Himalayan region, in Bageshwar district and five guest houses in five villages around the Binsar sanctuary five years ago. These have now become successful examples of community driven tourism.

The Saryu valley is a 5-hour drive (about 70 km) beyond Almora and Binsar. The villages around Binsar are Satri, Risal, Dalar, Kathdhara and Gonap. The two villages around Saryu are Supi and Jhuni and the campsite, at 9,000 ft, is uphill of Supi village.

“We wanted to stop migration from these strikingly beautiful small hill villages, each comprising seven-eight families, by augmenting a mode of livelihood for them with better use of their small land holdings.

“The villagers were given basic training in tourism business. Three guest houses, including one in a 150-year-old magnificent building, were chosen for the purpose. The ownership and management of these guest houses were given in the hands of a committee consisting of villagers,” said Ratnamala.

In terms of eco-tourism, she has been cautious in not disturbing the environment of the area and has taken care to sell what is already available there in abundance.

She averred, “At Walking Holidays, tourists are educated about a wide variety of flora and fauna.” Ratnamala has also established two eco-camps in Karnataka.

The other award winner Ritish Suri, who was awarded the Most Inspirational Eco-lodge Award, has come a long way since his frequent visits to Corbett as a college lad.

He had then moved on to hold trips in the region, made some lifelong friends and finally, created his own ecologically sound place.

As a keen naturalist and erudite about the jungle, its flora, its birds and its innumerable animals, he has always been eager to share this knowledge with guests at Camp Forktail Creek, a forest home, situated in Bhakrakot village on the north-eastern periphery of the Corbett tiger reserve.

He said, “Over the years, I reduced the number of mud huts from 12 to eight to spend quality time with those guests who wanted to spend more time learning about the place,” Suri said.

While building his camp in 2000, he remained sensitive to the surroundings. He said, “We have done little to change the landscape around us. We maintained the 'no-electricity' status with candles and lanterns to illuminate the huts.

“I made my camp on barren land by clearing the lantana and replanting the remaining patch with forest trees and grass to attract wildlife. My aim is to make tourists understand, discover and respect the jungle and be comfortable with it”.

Most of the furniture and interior fittings in these mud huts are made of waste wood and painted with used mobile oil - this not only looks attractive but keeps termites away.

Efforts were made to incorporate local raw material and designs, minimise wastage, recycle material to keep costs low.

He also showed keen interest in employing youngsters from nearby villages to work at his camp.

He then chalked out a number of activities in sync with the surroundings. He said, “Our forte being wildlife, we organise extended birding or wildlife-related trips from the camp like overnight trips inside the tiger reserve, elephant back safaris ranging from three to eight days, journey on jeeps to old forest rest houses in the Kumaon Himalayas, multi-day hikes on trails used by Corbett during his hunt for man-eating tigers, bird watching or wildlife holidays to the Dudhwa National Park, mahout-training programmes, specialised photography trips and day-long or multi-day angling expeditions”.

Both awardees thanked the Department of Eco-tourism for encouraging them in their pursuits.

Elated over the recognition given to activities related to eco-tourism in the state, Rajiv Bhartari, Director of Eco-tourism, said, “Eco-tourism is emerging as a specialised wing of tourism. This was a vague concept few years ago. Even in the international arena, in countries like the USA and the UK, it is also shaping up into a business model, yielding good revenue along with serving environmental and community concerns. Uttarakhand has a lot of scope to explore and excel in the field of eco-tourism in the future”.

Nevertheless, it is high time that the state government comes up with a clear policy on eco-tourism. Ritish Suri said, “Multi-storey hotels and resorts have sprung up everywhere around Corbett. These are more interested in profits and less in environment.

“These were also recently denounced for holding noisy theme dance parties at night. All this is happening because we have no clear-cut policy for the hospitality industry to behave in eco-sensitive zones.”

Dehradun, October 6
Neetu Chandola of Dehradun today won the 100m race at the Eighth Inter-District Police Athletics Championship 2010 being held at the Police Lines here.

Sonia Satyawati of 31st Battalion of the PAC and Meenu from Dehradun stood second and third, respectively.

In javelin throw, Indu of Pitthoragarh stood first while Kavita of Dehradun and Puja of the 31st Battlion of PAC stood second and third respectively.

In the 10,000m walkathon, Vidya Mehta of Pauri Garhwal was first while Mamta Bisht of Udham Singh Nagar and Deepa Rajwar of Nainital stood second and third in the women’s final.

In the 400m hurdles, Meenu of the 40th Battalion of PAC stood first while Sunita of the 31st Battalion of PAC was second. Anuradha of Tehri Garhwal was placed third.

In pole vault, Deepak Chaudhary of Haridwar was the first and Arvind Rana of 40th battalion of PAC was second. Govind Singh of 31st battalion of PAC was third.

In the 20,000m walkathon, Neeraj Sharma of India Reserve Battalion (IRB) stood first while Sanjay Badhani of 46th battalion of PAC was second. Kirpal Singh of IRB was placed third.

In javelin throw, Yashjit Singh of Tehri Garhwal stood first while Santosh Kunwar of Dehradun was second. The third place went to Pardeep Mehta of IRB.

In the 800m race, Mahesh Puri of Dehradun stood first while Sandeep Singh of Nainital and Shekhar Kunwar of IRB were second and third respectively.

In the 400mx4 relay race, 40th PAC battalion stood first while Nainital team came second. The third position was bagged by the Dehradun team.

Vivek Sati of Dehradun won the high jump event while Arvind of 40th PAC battalion was second. Narender Singh of IRB was third.

In the 5000m final, Ravinder Rautela of 40th PAC battalion was the winner while Vikram Singh of Almora was the runner-up. The third place was won by Sher Singh of Nainital. 

Dehradun, October 6
Welham Girls School, Doon Blossom School and The Heritage School won their matches at the Inter Council Schools Junior Girls Table Tennis Tournament being held at The Heritage School here today.

Welham School won their first match against The Heritage School 3-0. In the second match, Doon Blossom defeated Unison School 3-0.

Welham Girls won their second match defeating Unison School 3-0. In the fourth match, Doon Blossoms won against The Heritage School 2-1.

Welham Girls School continued their winning streak by winning their third match against Doon Blossoms School 3-0. In the sixth match, The Heritage School defeated Unison School 3-0.

In the individual events, Anusha of Welham School defeated Aishwarya of The Heritage School 2-0. She also defeated Rose of Unison School 2-0. In another match, Monika Sharma of Doon Blossoms School trounced Rose of Unison School 2-0. She defeated Aishwarya of The Heritage School 2-0. Anusha won her last match by defeating Monika Sharma of Doon Blossoms School 2-0.

In the last match, Rose of Unison School beat Aishwarya of The Heritage School 2-1. The finals of the singles will be played tomorrow.

Dehradun, October 6
In the final of Under-16 District Badminton Championship that concluded today, Ayushi Rawat beat Himani Rawat 21-19, 21-15

In the under-16 doubles category, Ayushi Rawat and Unnati Bisht beat Katyayni Singh and Anustha Verma 17-21, 21-12, 21-14.

In the under-16 boys singles, brothers Vaibhav Chauhan and Vyom Chauhan battled it out with Vaibhav outclassing his brother and winning the match 21-18, 19-21, 22-20.

In the under-16 boys doubles final, the duo of Udit Dobhal and Puneet Bhatt beat Vyom Chauhan and Vaibhav Chauhan 23-21, 21-19.

Later, chief guest CDO Indudhar Badoi gave away the prizes.

Dehradun, October 6
The third Shri Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys Super 8s Cricket Tournament was held at the Heritage School on Wednesday.

On the fourth day of the tournament, the first match was played between Doon International and Carman School Dalanwala.

Carman School won the toss and decided to bowl. In the first innings, Doon International scored 30 runs at the loss of three wickets and Carman scored 40 runs for one wicket. In the second innings, Doon International scored 22 runs at the loss of five wickets. Carman successfully chased the target and won the match by seven wickets. Abhishek Semwal of Carman was adjudged the best player with a total of 23 runs.

The second match was played between St Joseph’s Academy and Hilton School. St Joseph’s Academy won the toss and decided to bat. In the first innings, St Joseph Academy scored 12 runs at the loss of seven wickets and Hilton School scored 33 runs for five wickets.

In the second innings, St Joseph Academy scored 23 runs for six wickets. Chasing a target of only three runs, Hilton School won the match by seven wickets. Arpit Bachchan of Hilton School became the best player with a total of 13 runs.

Haridwar, October 6
With the effects of degradation of environment and damage to ecology and wildlife becoming visible in the form of human-animal conflict and global warming, the need of the hour is to maintain a balance between development and nature.

This was mooted by wildlife experts at a seminar-cum-exhibition held in Kanya Gurukul here today. Hundreds of wildlife lovers from across the city visited the exhibition.

This seminar has been organised by the Zoology Department of Gurukul Kangri University as part of the ongoing Wildlife Week being celebrated across the country.

Speaking as the chief guest, the Vice-Chancellor of the Gurukul Kangri University highlighted the age-old principles of Indian philosophy that combined human life as well as wildlife.

“In the current time when fast-paced development has taken over wildlife, conservation is of utmost importance to minimise global warming,” he said.

Dr Dev Raj Khanna, Head of the Zoology Department, emphasised on development striking a perfect balance with nature.

Noted anthropologist Dinesh Bhatt stated that human life cannot be complete without trees and wildlife as these were interdependent on each other.

Pointing that wild animals have been ancient friends of humans, Mahila Vidyalaya College Principal Sangeeta Vidyalankar said the need was to go to basics as natural principles should not be violated.

A student of the host college Farha Khan drew applause for giving statistics on the direct effect of human activities on wildlife.

“Human settlement, aided by rapid industrialisation, has threatened the existence of wildlife. If this continues, many species will only be seen in zoos or wildlife photographs,” remarked Farah.

University Chancellor AK Chopra, Dr Sangeeta Madan, Dr Sonal Sharma, Arti, Ridhi, Shweta, Sakshi, Ridhima, Pratibha, Shilpa, Khushboo, Roopam, Priya and others participated in the discussion.

An on-the-spot painting competition was also organised with wildlife conservation as its theme. A large number of girl students participated in the contest.