Uttarakhand government’s Rs 400 crore herbal and aroma tourism project is yet to take off for want of funds. The project envisages the creation of herbal aromatic plantation clusters and parks on 5000 hectares of land in 1000 Van Panchayats across the state with the help of the public and private funding agencies.
The project’s first phase was to start in the beginnimg of financial year 2024 but it has not yet started for the want of the finance. It will be implemented by the state Forest Department through its State Level Federation (SLF) headed by the PCCF Van Panchayat.
According to the project plan creation of Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), herbal and aromatic tourism parks in van panchayats will be developed with financial supports from, government, private and public sector agencies but so far it has not found favour from the finance agencies.
The state government made an hand-holding fund provision of Rs 15 crore in this year’s budget but even that has not been recieved by the SLF.
According SLF head and PCCF Van Panchayat BP Gupta, the project aims to utilize the collective efforts of local communities through Van Panchayats to promote
sustainable Medicinal and Aromatic Plantation (MAP) and eco-tourism in forest areas. It aims to establish one herbal and aroma tourism park in select areas.
“The Herbal and Aroma Tourism Park will provide engaging exposures for tourists like guided tours, group activities and plant walks, MAP collection and harvesting and Processing and demonstrations of preparations and usage of herbal remedies,” informed Gupta.
Gupta added “Parks will provide employments to hundreds of local people in the area leading to the strengthening of local economy. These parks will also house retail outlets of medicinal plant and extracted herbs for the tourists.”
“Apart from this every herbal and aromatic park in van panchayats will have retiring and relaxing facilities for the tourists coming here,” said Gupta.
According to Gupta, it’s a decade long projects which will be developed with the cost of around Rs 400 crore. The implementation will be in two phases from 2024 to 2029 and 2028-2033.