Celebrate National Tourism Day 2022

privilege and pleasure to welcome today our very special chief guest the honorable union minister for tourism culture and development of northeastern region refugee and we have secretaries from different ministries including our own secretary as the host secretary for the event today and we'll meander and show you incredible india as we go along in its various dimensions and therefore wishing all of you a very special day from incredible india all these stories of incredible india and incredible indians as we go along on the national tourism day and we are of course hoping that all of you are keeping safe keeping healthy wearing your mars keeping the social distancing and getting vaccinated now why is tourism so very special in india i must tell you before we move on to the program that in india in the last six years it's been heartening to see the organized efforts of the government actually taking india from the rank of 65 in 2014 to 34 in 2019 in the travel and tourism competitiveness index of the world economic forum the foreign arrivals in india just before kovat of course kobe has been playing the blip but their foreign tourist arrivals in india registered a growth of seven point two percent from 2014 to 2019 it's also a sector that brings employment to people and almost 15 citizens of our country have direct and indirect employment in the sectors of travel tourism and hospitality it's a sector that's growing it's a sector of incredible opportunities and what are those opportunities and that's why we have very different people coming in from different ministries secretaries leading their departments and bringing to us the opportunities that incredible india brings today at this juncture i would like to welcome shari alvin singh ji who is secretary tourism government of india for his opening remarks mr singh is an officer of the 1988 badge of the maharashtrikada he's a student of economics so he understands the economics of tourism really well i can tell you guys that he's also worked in various parts of maharashtra he's worked in central government at different levels before handling the current portfolio in fact just before he came in here he was the chairman for the airport authority of india and that's a crucial sector for us because what is rhythm without travel so he was handling that critical portfolio and brings in a lot of knowledge from there and interestingly before just before that he was also the minister of economic at the embassy of india in japan again a tremendous learning which benefits all of us here in the ministry and mr singh has also attended numerous training courses including training courses at geneva and harvard sir welcome and we are waiting for your opening remarks on the national tourism day twenty days so wishing everyone a very happy tourism day at the outset i take this opportunity to welcome sri christian reddy honorable minister for tourism culture and donor padma bhushan shri anand mahindra chairman mahindra group colonel and my esteemed colleagues from government of india srimati linandan secretary ministry of environment forest and climate change sri government secretary ministry of culture sri uped singh secretary ministry of textiles and sri ji ashok kumar director general of the national ganga mission to celebrate today's national tourism day 2022. ladies and gentlemen tourism has experienced continuous growth and diversification over the decades to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the world today the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports food products or automobiles tourism has a huge multiplier effect not only in terms of creating employment generation at the grassroot level but also due to its socio-economic impact across communities these dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver economic progress it is also a great binder and has created a feeling of brotherhood among different nations and helped develop better understanding of different cultures in india the tourism sector has emerged as one of the key drivers of economic growth tousm promotes national integration and makes citizens aware of the beauty and rich cultural heritage of our great nation it also promotes inter-regional relationships and encourages cultural pursuits by providing support to local handicrafts pochampalli as we are aware has been awarded as one of the best villages for tourism by the unw wto that is the world tourism organization for the year 2021 and it has inspired us to celebrate the national tourism day 2022 recognizing rural and community-centric tourism as we all know rural communities are custodians of indigenous natural and cultural heritage and also have an inherent ability to coexist with natural ecosystems it is important at this juncture that rural communities and landscapes are leveraged to develop and promote sustainable tourism development models in a country as diverse as india and where a significant number of people are deeply rooted in villages it is both an opportunity as well as necessity that tourism develops itself and it develops the local rural communities various art forms they whether they be music dance arts and crafts textiles cuisine cultural constructs all have their roots in villages and that's what makes us unique and indeed incredible we have seen how the textile products of pochampali and the art forms of places like rahu rajpur have become major tourism attraction both for domestic and international tourists so it is intention that such models are replicated in other parts of the country to bring the economic benefits of tourism to local communities to generate employment and to bridge the cultural divide between urban and rural spaces tourism in the last two years has suffered the world over including in our country due to the ongoing pandemic we are going through a third wave which the country has been able to tackle well due to our very successful vaccination program while international tourism will take some time to start domestic tourism has been doing fairly well and we are expecting that businesses will reach their normal levels you know notwithstanding the current blip will reach its normal level very shortly to conclude i would like to wish everyone good health and reassure all stakeholders and participants that the government of india is with you and we join hands to restart and reboot tourism it is important that development through tourism is sustainable responsible and inclusive and i'm confident that if you all join hands we can emerge stronger and more resilient to cope with the challenges that confront us i once again wish you all a very happy national tourism day and hope to see the tourism sector set again on a path of recovery to reach even greater heights thank you jai hin thank you sir for setting the context and also setting the stage and at this juncture once again what is so special about incredible india in the textiles of india is something that we are going to showcase the next because experiential tourism dear friends has emerged as a major segment across the world and india truly incredible in its various tangible and tangible traditions is a country that is you cannot they say finish seeing everything that india offers in one lifetime and how true that is we shall show you as we go along the program but bringing to us the story of textiles and how textiles of india which are part of our history right from the indus valley civilization down till now and the use of 300 plus natural plants for colors and dyes where you get these kind of traditions anywhere in the world and bringing therefore that splendor of textiles today with us is the secretary textiles government of india shiri upend and sir is from the 1985 batch of the indian administrative service he's from the urusaka and that's a state for such a strong textile tradition so it's a pleasure to have you with us sir he's a graduate and post graduate in engineering from the iit kanpur after that held various positions in the state government and in the central government in the water resources and river development petroleum natural gas and a lot of other portfolios so he is enriched with a lot of multi-dimensional understanding when today he heads the textile ministry and we look forward to your experiences and how do you see textiles and tourism coming together thank you very much uh good morning to everyone honorable ministers first of all a very warm greetings to all of you on this very important occasion of our world tourism day as we all know indian handloom and handicrafts represent a very rich cultural heritage of our country no other country in the world has the kind of richness that we have in our weaves and crafts pete cut from orissa beat a kari from andhra pradesh brocade from uttar pradesh azraq from gujarat kanjimura from tamil nadu jamdani from west bengal the list will go on actually the rich indian tradition of cultural and handicrafts and two days we go together they go hand in hand in fact they are the natural allies that is why when we look at a tourist map of india we see a lot of handling clusters around the popular you for tourism take the case of a varanasi or kanchipuram or cd etc uh they are very totally a very important tourist destinations they are very important clusters as far as the handling is concerned so while hand looms and handicrafts enriches one's travel experience say it is also true that rebels leaves their imprint on our weaves and crafts many of our weaving techniques including that of jambani have come in from other parts of the of the world uh i just talked about the hikartha in fact outcome of bali jatra if you look at the ajrak art of koch the design of eight pointed star and the brilliant tessellation is what you would find in alamura spain and eugenic tiles of turkey this is also true of our handicrafts beat the vider of channa patna all of them have imprint of art traveling across borders to spread far and wide we have always adopted techniques and made them of our own in order to promote crafts best tourism ministry of textile is implementing a scheme called craft touring village so far we have already taken up 15 such craft during villages they include which erwin also spoke they included our ministries came to further collaborate with his ministry and start the concepts concept of experiential tourism in a big way uh if you can uh using of course craft as a medium medium it would be amazing to work out circuits where travelers can live in craft villages or culture or customer honorable prime minister has always been a great advocate of hand homes giving us fabulous mantras or vocal for local and my handle my pride if this can be taken to the world via craft tourism it will be a free collaboration during ajayadee completed uh friends i uh once again wish you all the best on world tourism day and i look forward to working very closely not only with the ministry of today's government of india but with the tourism departments all the states thank you very much thank you sir so tourism and craft coming together as craft villages and a lot of other museums so these are exciting times clearly and for everyone listening in here i'm sure you see a huge opportunity of how textiles and tourism come together thank you very much sir and moving forward another crucial and a very element for india a country which is steeped in heritage both the built heritage and the intangible heritage and various cultural forms you are spoiled for choice in our country whether it comes to languages whether it comes to dance forms music forms theater forms the tangible and intangible unesco heritage sites and listings it does it just goes on and on and that's why viewers we are incredible india and bringing to us how do we leverage how do we bring together what is the story of culture and how does culture work for tourism in india is secretary tourism government of uh secretary culture government of india should we go with mohanji welcome sir and uh we look forward to your address to us but before that i'm going to tell the viewers the very extensive experience that sri mohan brings amidst us here today he is from the 1989 badge of the ias he belongs to the sikkim kada which incidentally is the only organic state of india and it is a also a state that is right up there for home states which is a very crucial part of tourism but today he represents culture he's also uh a student of the iim so he went to the i am ahmedabad and i'm sure he's bringing in a lot of competencies from there as he takes the culture ministry forward he's an engineer before that he's worked in the ministries of finance and has handled very interesting portfolios as he has also been the minister of economic in the indian embassy at washington he's also been in the cabinet secretariat he's handled a lot of public private partnership issues in the ppps and fbi's in the dea and they say that you know you should normally have an apple a day to keep the doctor away in mr mohan's case he can't do that because his wife is a doctor so he does not need to have an apple a day welcome sir and we look forward to your thoughts on how does culture leverage tourism for our incredible india thank you uh honorable minister for tourism culture and donor uh anniversary education refugee my senior colleagues shiri alvin singh ji secretary tourism shiryupan singh ji secretary in the ministry of textiles srimati nina lina nandanji secretary in the ministry of environment forest kamlavardhan my my colleague who's dg tourism ashok kumar director of the national ganga mission friends ladies and gentlemen at the outset i would like to congratulate the ministry of tourism for having even in very trying circumstances gone ahead and organized this event on the national tourism day which is an event of the azadi kamrik mouth program that is currently going on in the country and it's a matter of pride for us in the culture ministry that the ministry of tourism has organized this program albeit in a virtual mode but still with a large element of jan magidari so i congratulate the ministry of tourism for that coming to my ministry the topic given to me is the inherent linkages between culture and tourism and i wish to devote some time on that as most of our viewers would be aware india is a country whose significant point of projection to the world is its culture this is a culture that goes back at least five thousand years so the first uh available archaeological evidences from the indus valley civilization go back at least to 3000 bc and if we were to extend that civilization beyond that we could possibly be looking at a 10 000 year old civilization today which is clearly the oldest and the most valuable of all the civilizations which archaeology and history has unearthed so far so we are a very old civilization we have also the earliest literary compositions found anywhere in the world although they were not written at the time at which they were composed but the vedas are sort of i mean if we even accept the view of the historians they go back to around 2000 bc so they are about five four thousand year old literary tradition so we have one of the oldest cultures and all of us know about it now the point is that how do you integrate that culture with tourism so here we have some ideas which i would like to project to this audience first of all if you just look at the archaeological heritage that india has we have about 4000 protected monuments of the asi and about 38 unesco world heritage sites this is clearly one of the highest number of unesco sites anywhere in the world apart from that at a very easy count we have more than a lack unprotected monuments some of which are of ancient heritage and most of them have immense tourism potential now uh just to give you some examples there is dholavira there is the ajanta caves there is the saint thomas church elora caves the martin sun temple the temple in gujarat the brahadishwara temple the kuthub minar all of these are monuments which go back at least thousand fifteen hundred two thousand years and they have huge archaeological importance but besides that they have a huge tourism importance on top of that we have the india is the home to some of the greatest philosophies whether it's buddhism whether it is jainism whether it's sikhism whether it's sufism and there are huge number of sites which are associated with these philosophies the tourism ministry has already incubated the buddhism circuit apart from that we are also now thinking of having a freedom circuit we can have circuits around the other philosophies that were given birth to in this great land and that itself becomes a great point for selling tourism many people if there is a circuit available with good connectivity not only people who follow that faith but people otherwise also would have an incentive to visit those places to see those places and to learn about those philosophies that were there in this country we also have in this country a huge heritage of temple architecture some of the finest temples some of the finest religious monuments anywhere in the world were made in this country starting from my home state to uh where the world famous rum tech monastery is located i can give you examples of the sanchi stupa the kedarna temple the shri padmasa padmana swami temple the baha'i house of worship the golden temple of amritsar the jama masjid of delhi the jain temple at ranakpur and the catholic marian shrine in goa all of these are superb examples of temple architecture which again have huge tourism values coming to some of the more intangible crafts the music of india as you are aware some of the biggest gharanas as we call them but essentially institutions of music have found place in india so going back to the sam await coming to the north shastra the carnatic museum the guaranas of patiala kirana and walia all of these have found their place in the pantheon of music globally all of them are housed in india and all of them have the potential to attract a lot of tourists the classical dances of india some of the biggest dance forms anywhere in the world are to be found in india india also is the repository of the highest numbers of dance forms including folk and tribal that again is a tourism opportunity link to that are the visual arts of india whether it's the rock art the fresco from the ajanta caves the gond art the madhubani paintings the miniature paintings the tanjore paintings the patachitra which we are talking about today the kalamkari the worldly paintings going to the festivals of india some of the biggest festivals are celebrated here then the crafts of india the secretary textiles has already spoken about the handloom and handicraft legacy all of these constitute a huge cultural repository now the only issue is that how do you convert them into a tourism opportunity how do you add value to them giving them the sort of the the importance that they deserve from a tourism point of view from an economic growth point of view from a job creation point of view so that is the challenge and through the medium of the national tourism day that is an issue on which we need to debate that's an issue on which we need to find strategies tourism ministry and the culture ministry are already working on the prospect of developing thousand monuments maybe through the monument mithra scheme maybe through other schemes but making these monuments the epicenter of tourism in india the epicenter of job creation and economic opportunities so uh the the essence of what i was trying to say is that we have one of the oldest cultures the facets of those cultures are manifold the attractive attraction of those cultural facets is is uh is i would say unparalleled anywhere in the world and the challenge is that how do we integrate them with tourism how do we integrate them with a value opportunity which can attract lot of people and on that the ministries will continue to work together and find creative solutions so that in the days ahead in the years ahead during this amrit azadi mahatsa we are able to take that cultural legacy showcase it to the world and make it a potential for creative uh for the creative economy uh that india deserves and that india should have thank you very much thank you sir so that was secretary culture bringing to you the incredible opportunities of incredible india both from the point of view of culture preservation and also in terms of how negative is friendly very thought-provoking and some very interesting ideas and indeed both the ministries have been working together in the past and i'm sure they should continue to do so as we work together to bring to you the heritage of india and we work together to bring the museums in renewed forms there is a lot of work happening in that sector in fact i must share with all of you that on a direct basis the ministry of tourism in the last few years has invested close to 10 000 odd crores in bringing you tourism infrastructure but also what's more important because what really drives tourism is civil aviation and that's where i think we as a country need to be really really proud that we have more than 140 airports across the country out of which 20 have the capacity to bring in international flights and we have the second largest highways in india today after the united states of america so a lot of good things happening and all these are driving and powering tourism in so many ways so that was a wonderful presentation sir and a lot of ideas came through that i'm sure we should continue the good work that everybody doing in the ministry of culture at this juncture i bring in a very different and a very interesting element which also drives and thrives tourism in india with more than 101 national parks and with close to i think 500 i'm sure i'm wrong because there might even be more but close to 500 sanctuaries and parks and the kind of flora and the fauna that india has it was very important for us to bring in the ministry of environment forest and climate change and wildlife tourism heading this ministry and a critical ministry that works for tourism is mrs lina she is the secretary in the ministry and has recently taken over mrs nandan is an officer of the 1987 badge of the uttar pradesh khada and she has served in various capacities in both the pradesh and central government she has been in the ministry of road transport and highway then of course she's also been a part of ministry of tourism so i'm sure she shall be viewing a lot of things off tourism as she now heads the ministry of environment and forests mrs nandan is a graduate in english from bihar from patna university and went on with her masters in development management from the asian institute of management at manila philippines she has written two books the first one titled how to placate an angry naga and finding one's feet in the is which she has co-authored with her husband shiri jivesh nandanji both the books have been published and the first one by penguin and the other one by the wisdom tree so clearly she's been doing a lot with herself welcome ma'am and we look forward to your thoughts on how we should be weaving environment forest as we take in the 21st century india further ahead from the perspective of tourism backroom team can you just check if mrs link is working so i think she's experiencing some technical glitch and therefore we'll move on with the program at this juncture and probably she'll join in once again the link seems to have dropped but we'll go back to that one later at this juncture therefore i'm going to take you meandering along the beautiful ganga maganga and so many other rivers of india india has been known for being a river rhyme civilization because a lot of our earlier civilizations in all parts of the country have been along the rivers of india the mighty brahmaputra yamuna kothavri krishna again in india you're spoiled for the rivers too and heading the the national mission for clean ganga on development of tourism along river ganga he's the director general there ashok belongs to the 91 badge of the is from the telangana carder and it's a pleasure to welcome him here today incidentally ashok and i had shared sikkim as a space from the point of view of election that was conducted in 2014 and that was another beautiful state from the tourism perspective ashok has been doing a tremendous amount of work in the government he's worked in the civil aviation he was instrumental in setting up india's aircraft accidents investigation bureau he is also a winner of the telangana excellence award in 2018 and the jalamitra award in 2002 he's worked in the sector of sanitation and has taken the initiative for construction of more than 100 000 individual sanitary latrines has been working on providing daily drinking water and what what all am i going to read about your show that's a lot of things to read about you so welcome amidst us and we look forward to your story of how are we linking the ganga to tourism uh thank you robinson uh thanks for reminding of those days in sikkim uh honourable minister for tourism culture and donor see education ready garu my senior colleagues uh let's see uh secretary ministry of text childs sri aramis since secretary minister of tourism uh smith secretary minister of environment forest and cultural uh climate change uh see government secretary administrative culture see anand mahindra chairman mahindra group manoj kashwar my close friend ashrie kamal of the rao dg music tourism and all the participants in this webinar my greetings on the occasion of the national tourism day 2022. i thank uh sir for getting given opportunity to speak in this uh to function today because gangnam is a very important aspect for india and also with the large tourism connect uh incredible india and adidas are the two buzzwords of indian tourism what makes incredible india attractive to aditi each one has a different take because they have different tastes with its vast area initial history india has many things to offer to all of them in her reporter people look for unique experiences fun and happiness inner peace serenity serendipity spirituality some are attracted to nature the mystic and the snow-clad mountains the sunkist beaches biodiversity some fall for arts and culture history heritage and mythology some are interested in adventure sports like trekking river rafting wildlife bees and cuisines etc the gengar basin has it all except the beaches and the sea although all rivers are important gangnam holds a very special place as it symbolizes the collective faith and sentiments and conscience of 1.3 billion people when it traverses a distance of 2 500 kilometers from gumu in uttarakhand to ganga sagar in west bengal it offers a treasure of historical legacies social culture and traditional heritage ecological diversities etc in all the sites that it cuts across the liver is linked to the asta of the country no river in the world can invoke the feeling it is a link with the past present and the future it is a bandha of mythology mahabharata and ramana the towns of the banks are replete with history all universities forts battles boss our own freedom movement we also have ayurveda these cuisines trekking drafting adventure sports a part of it if these can make heaven or not we also have the gateway to the actual heaven kashi banaris the oldest the the longest living civilization in the world acknowledged even by the saints so ganga has a lot of it is to offer but what are the minimum requirements for these are diseases who want to come they expect they expect cleanliness probably good water good place to stay good food good guides and good accessibility that's what name seeks to provide in 2014 when the government of india launched the nama genga mission for the holistic rejuvenation restoration and conservation of ganga basin it adopted a multi-sector approach to achieve these features the four strategic industries were the nirmal ganga the unpolluted flow the average restricted flow and gen ganga people river connect and the ganga the research policies and knowledge management we have tried to achieve the the nirmal ganga by trying to clean the water by trying to stop the the sewage water which is coming in by treating it and putting in the river we are also joining hands with the eschabad mission to keep the river clean from the litter which comes in as a part of the ganga we seek to provide the connect to people and river and the water in the river we are pushing for organic and natural farming we are protecting and reviving biodiversity both flora and phonon the rudraksha trees and the medicinal plants that we have been planted on and protected the the olfins and otters that are being protected under the name are one of the examples of how we are reviving the biodiversity here we are ensuring good flow of water preventing sewage and dirt from getting to the river we develop your friends with you all you expect the flow of people together because kumbh is one of the largest gathering of people and we have very well demonstrated how good water can create a lot of appreciation in that treasure what we have done i'll just take two minutes for that mission had sanctioned about 365 projects for about 30 000 crores today and some of these have helped us in getting the avral and the nirmal ganga put in place this has improved the water quality the flow of river and the surrounding rhine ecosystem this has also helped to boost tourism which is the testimony of which is the success of the big kumbh mela in prayer raj and late with haridwar and we have also achieved a class a water status in haridwar which is one of the highest water quality in the category we under the ganga component have established ganga museum at chanti chandigarh in haridwar and there are other similar museums which have been established to showcase the cultural aspects of gangnam uh the pro we are also setting up business in rishikesh but now uh we have also developed guards criminal etc and so that the people uh uh uh they come to the ganga at the guards and then do the puja of ganga the argys which is also a very major source of tourist attraction um we have also started jealous dolphins safaris and and that is also drawing a lot of proud we are also done with darshan and prasad a program called menganga which travers travox series to attract people on the various aspects of the ghana now coming to uh what we are planning to do as par part of this rural connect and community tourism we can offer a lot because under the concept of conceptualized by the honourable prime minister in the first national united council meeting where we are trying to contribute up to three percent of gdp from this bill five sectoral interventions have been identified and these include the sustainable agriculture biodiversity and afforestation cultural heritage and tourism in indian waterways so cultural heritage and tourism is a very important part of earth we are planning to do a lot of uh activities under the asadi ahmed mahosa to connect to improve our connect with the people by focusing on various aspects of the hunger our focus in tourism would be making people connect with the tourism as well as the cultural aspects of things in and around the ganga basin and also try to improve the income of the people around the basin so this will probably help us in getting a better connect with the people we are also joining hands with the indian water-based authorities to floating community jetties on the roll-on roll of terminal so this can be used for boat races etc to help the movement of people across the river and also encourage local tourism so uh for the asadika ahmad mahastra we are planning massive programs along the ganga racing starting from august 15 2022 we are planning programs on 75 towns on gengar basin on various themes vocal for local arts bees and food or probably uh setting up stalls for one product exhibitions local fares and even uh a momentary commentary on the 1857 warfare defense because a lot of activities of historical activities were on the banks of the river ganga so gaga committees are there in the district which can take the lead and uh we have the ganga priorities and they connect with the nehru kendra's who have been helping us in connecting with the people there so with intact we are taking up an exhaustive study of the what are the architectural heritage and intensive cultural heritage and natural heritage along the 15 51 districts of the river and the results have been amazing we have identified very very interesting um circuits which can be developed around the ganga basin like in varanasi region which can be acceptable extend up to kanpur bihar jargon and bengal we have found a list of uh historical force for instance in prayag raj chunar baksar chatram mushrabad and other lesser force similar similarly there are coons and temples of historical importance which can be potential for tourism there are singapore singapore an archaeological site near prayagaraj which is a potential to become a unesco heritage rights there are such archaeological sites in madinpur waisali and there are a lot of flood plains uh lakes for ecotourism in varanasi noida and wetlands for developing into good potential uh tools in place like upper near so identified many historical places for tourism for instance the 1857 uprising many of the things are on the river basin the mira the mangal kandi's village is there uh right down up to barrackport there are a lot of areas where this thing happened so in this uh so it's very appropriate that we take up this uh these uh celebrations in this area and very importantly mythological circuits there are several ramayana mahabharata circuits here which is possible uh the nishant raja force pandava caves conducive lake all these are part of the the ghana basin so there are these things can be connected so we also plan to have local fares which can be promoted so there are a lot of ideas which have been identified in in in in conjunction with the tourism ministry so dg tourism and we had a meeting the other day and so we have identified many other things which can be taken up so i as a part of the academic monster all this will be taken up and also we want to have more people connected to the river so that it will also help us in in sustaining the development progress and the cleaning process we do for the ganga as well they give an income for the people around yuga so this is some of the um uh initiatives with the name guys uh taking up planning to take up uh as a part of the tourism in the next uh one year and definitely i look forward for cooperation from the ministry of tourism and the ministry of culture and also from all the stakeholders associated with this to take up the cleaning of ganga to ensure that clear the ganga as well as a good tourism activities along the river which can help the people to make a economic growth out of it and also help in sustaining the what efforts which we are taking up for sustaining the clean gaga thanks a lot thank you ashok that was a very spirited uh you know presentation and i'm sure viewers as we have moved from textiles to culture and to the rivers of india you can already see the kind of potential that india has for tourism and aren't you already getting spoiled for choice and also what is very interesting and why we brought the secretaries of the ministries today to speak to all of you is to let you share with the story of how india in the 21st century is becoming so very empowered and indeed why also we mentioned this year to be a very special year all these secretaries have mentioned that and i must therefore also remind all of you why is this particular russia pareto they were so special and all of us are trying to do that much more so much has happened in the last few years and therefore we are urging everyone that just do that little extra more to make sure that our dream of having the atma neighborhood indeed gets fulfilled really really quick on this juncture i am going to now go back to the secretary from environment forest and climate change srimati leela nandanji madames and link had dropped off but she's back here with us welcome ma'am and we look forward to how the story of environment forest and wildlife weaves the story of tourism together thank you good afternoon and uh namaskar to honorable minister tourism culture and donor my colleagues from central government ministries distinguished participants of today's national tourism day ladies and gentlemen for me it is something extra special to be speaking on the national tourism day given the fact that i have spent time in the state government as well as in the government of india working in the tourism sector and therefore it is especially relevant to say that as we talk about tourism products we heard a secretary textile who elaborated upon the various arts and crafts and textiles of the country which are unique and so attractive secretary culture has spoken at length about the cultural heritage of india and how it is part and parcel of india's global tourism attraction so too is the case with our environment and forest ministry and recognizing the fact that ecotourism is such an intrinsic part of the country conservation program as well as tourism plans this ministry has come out with very detailed eco-tourism guidelines which were issued in october 2021 these are guidelines which really spell out the vision of the ministry of how we can develop how we can join hands all stakeholders can work together to tap the eco-tourism potential of our country given the fact that with 981 protected areas and these include tiger reserves sanctuaries marine zones all go up to make the tremendous biological diversity of this country the vision of this ministry is that we have to be able to involve all the stakeholders right from the communities which work which live in these areas and the ability for their livelihood opportunities to be strengthened through responsible and sustainable eco-tourism to the entire vision of the tourism ministry as such to fully tap the eco-tourism potential of the country what we envisage is that there is a tremendous opportunity for us to join hands and therefore these guidelines which we've issued very recently they work on the principle of very detailed plans coming out from the states by the department of tourism and the department of forests in the state government working together where the community the district and the state are part and parcel of the entire eco-tourism story there will be many aspects to eco-tourism that will have to be developed the capacity building the skilling requirements the finance the integration with many of the startup initiatives of the country and last but most important the awareness about the need to preserve nature to conserve to protect all our wildlife flora and fauna is something that has to be fully integrated with ecotourism plans that are developed by the state governments i am sure that these 90 which just for the starters we have circulated in these guidelines these 90 places that we've listed out they cover various types of national parks and centuries across the country but these would be just the beginning we could go forward and identify more such areas and given the fact that many of these are somewhat remote and far-flung how we can harness the power of technology to proper properly capture the value inherent in these eco-tourism sites and to bring them up to the discerning tourists will be part of the plan that has to be developed the other part which takes care of the conservation and protection aspect that is so intrinsic to this responsibilities is also something that has to be mainstream and therefore here i would particularly appeal to all the stakeholders of the tourism sector the tour operators and and all those who are part and parcel of the tourists experiential aspect they have to be fully in tune with the country's objective of eliminating plastic of reducing uh pollution and controlling uh the aspects of noise pollution especially in the wildlife parks and sanctuaries so this has to be integrated with the plans that are developed at the local level district level and state level and i'm sure that once we come together on a platform we could energize all the different stakeholders so that this vision of tourism being harnessed in its full potential can be realized by all of us working together so let me conclude by saying that it is a pleasure for me to be a part of the webinar today on national tourism day and certainly this ministry would be very happy to work forward and to work with the tourism ministry and all the stakeholders in tapping the tourism potential of our eco-tourism sites but in a manner which is responsible sustainable and inclusive thank you very much thank you man that was indeed uh i think a lot of it came from the heart viewers don't you feel that i think uh ma'am the fact that you were here and therefore your linkage and i am told by everybody here that part of your heart still lives in tourism so so it's been really wonderful hearing from you and looking forward to a lot of work together indeed as mam said not only are we supposed to take tourism forward but how to do it in a sustainable way how to make sure that the communities and everything else that nature has given us is not you know desecrated as we go along i think these very important points that mam has raised and we look forward that in this very special year that we celebrate the azadi community we shall not only drive tourism but do it in a sustainable manner thank you ma'am for your participation and we look forward to a continued engagement with the ministry of environment forest and climate change now at this point uh we wanted to bring in a very different aspect and we are switching over to a participant who ministries supported last year and he and five of his comrades they are all from the army these are people from the armed forces and how the citizens of the country are coming together and are changing the india the nya bharara the 21st century india the atman barbara all that how the citizens are adding value to that is indeed a learning that all of us got when we sponsored this program led by colonel minot keshwar and his comrades they not only went around the ganga but they did so by walking a foot five thousand five hundred thirty kilometers of the ganga walk and what was so fascinating and why we thought it made a great idea from the tourism perspective to sponsor this part of their journey was that they started walking from 16 december 2020 and finished the walk on 23rd june 2021 and as they walked along the banks of the ganga the locals the local villagers the rural india that group of people that would join in the back part of india which became their host as they journeyed along as they walked along they made a lot of videos we kept pushing it out on social media and it became a phenomenal journey of going into the heart of india and therefore it's a pleasure to welcome you today colonel mike keshwar and before i call upon you to actually make your presentation the group also made a short film on their journey there's so much that they had to show it cannot do justice in the time that we have here for them but let's do whatever we can so welcome colonel manoj keshwar and let's have the film first on ganga parikrama team any gd [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you team any gd and now i call upon colonel mike kishwar to kindly come up and make his presentation it is such a proud moment to uh to showcase the amazing journey we took on ganga called parikrama in fact it is a vedic tradition it used to happen a thousand two thousand years back but somehow uh we lost touch of it and yatras have always been a great motivator or kind of a journey we used to take you know all around our geographical entities it was always part of indian culture which you see in kamadi as you see it in yatra of dharmatha but the ganga yatra somehow at some stage had lost steam and not many times in life you have a privilege to be blessed by maganga to finally come and you know restart this tradition of ganga yatra i am on behalf of millions of people who have faith in atul ganga i am presenting a few stories well there are a million stories which can happen uh around ganga when you walk every meter of it on both banks uh from the glacier to the ganga sagar amazing journey and all that uh these secretaries and secretaries have spoken well uh we were fortunate that we were able to weave uh all those aspects in this one single yatra which is called atula ganga parikrama let me just take you through a small presentation on this whole journey that we took i'll just share the screen i'm assuming everybody is able to see this so ganga is a is 11 years veterans initiative military veterans initiative basically for ganga rejuvenation and to synergize all the people who are working towards rejuvenation of ganga who believe in ganga who believe in the indian-ness of it and so we aim to synergize all aspects finally to deliver an amazing and clean and and aviral and nirmal ganga to our future generations the whole purpose of this atul ganga initiative is to allow our future generations to have what we have had for centuries and amazing ganga river which has magical properties let me tell you once we walk the whole thing now let me tell you this we began with there are eight epic long distance hikes around the world india has none so um the ganga yatra or the ganga parikrama definitely fills in that gap and now we have one walk which probably is has got diversity which is unparalleled now here is the summary of what we did we um started this parikrama uh as already said on 16th of december at priyagaraj went to ganga sagar took a u-turn came all the way to gangotri took a u-turn and came back to prayagas that was the complete parikrama um anything ahead of gangotri was not allowed because of a second wave at its peak but we had two to six permanent workers 150 relay walkers and over a lakh people joined us on various stages of the yatra and walked with us for ganga so it was a 190 days 5530 kilometers almost 5000 cities towns and villages about a billion people we directly touched who we spoke to or went and an outreach uh along with the partners like atula ganga namami ganga nahuru kendra that outreach was nothing less than about 10 million people so um so this one single yatra of 190 days in the kovite period really went ahead to to touch the indian populace these are the three people who finished the entire meter by meter 5530 kilometers viatra rohit jaat and hindu they finished this yatra completely rest of us did 90 80 60 10 percent but they all did join in in this yakra let me take you through these aspects when we stepped out of prayag raj this was one place where very clearly says what is this is what the indian culture believes that the soul of india is through ganga the civilization of india is through ganga and it's our mother you know as we moved along uh there was massive love of the people somebody presented us gita somebody welcomed us in their homes um you know as if i don't know we are messiers of uh you know ganga or personally sent by maganga to visit these people people organize cultural programs for us and the youth connected with us through ncc a lot of senior military officers took initiative to bring in the ncc to come and walk with us and to learn why these veterans who have served their life on the borders are now moving around on ganga and and that's an initiative a lot of these senior officers thought that as an example all our ncc youth should see so here we have jan linda balan uh general manjeet sabji white holocare the famous diamond exporter they all came and joined this idea of atul ganga parikrama in in lots and thousands and thousands of numbers people came and heard us on on this ganga they were amazing experiences of camping along ganga they were experience of this ganga dholi which we had unique experience to uh to follow her path from mukba to gangotri and then the part or the doors of the uh holy shrine were opened right in front of us and that's the day we reached gangotri so it was coincidental or was it ordained but that's what happened as you go through bengal you you actually have the wives of caitanya mahaprabhu the bhakti moment and as you move around you you will see these people completely devoted to [Music] very simple thing i explained to some sadhus that you know we're taking this parikrama and they all bowed to my bonnet of my car you know to to to have that faith and this tells you how amazing faith people have in in ma ganga they were unique experiences like the one you see here from the kingfisher catching its morning uh catch uh to um steel guys and foxes and and you see all of them routinely uh you see this ancient irrigation system in which people are getting the water to their fields through some you know ancient systems there are initiatives and stories of people who are on the ganga belt vijay sunitrai has created a shorya one basically to make sure that the ganga doesn't erode the banks they have created forests there um and of course people keep warm in the morning through these the river in in bihar and yupi has got dhyara they like islands within the within the ganga and there are uh women and men who go to do their daily uh agriculture and stuff there and these are the women bringing back some firewood back to their homes from the viara and of course these are daily chores which we do the children have their own transportation system and there's local food so this this sugarcane which i'm having is one of the softest sugar cane you ever probably have and it's grown in ganga sagar island and it's really amazing well the holy bath is is is a custom which is followed right at four o'clock in the morning along ganga then there's rural joy of making a living this on the right you see is is the jaggery of khajur the date which is which which is carrying and on the left you see of course spring onions being taken to the market for selling there are artisans on the way you know you see this uplas to the left which are very distinct from the round uh we have here in rest of india then there are artisans uh of uh these are they are selecting threads for sarees the harmonium makers the murtay shelf cars of uh bengal now i'm going to take you through a couple of stories which are one is this revival of great adjutant straw you know deepak singh ji and arvin mishraji all these people have taken great initiative to bring back the garuda so called and from a population of about 70 in i think 2006 they are now 700 uh and it's the community which got involved uh to save this uh this amazing bird and now bhagalpur area we found was full of birds all kinds of cranes and birds and bird life can be seen there and amazing efforts by the government and the local communities there who join hands to bring back the great adjutant stalk second story is about murshidabad mushrik is like a netflix series from murshidabad right in ganga sagar there is a traitors trail you know uh and and this something as a circuit which must be developed there is already structures it's just have to be uh you know done up again and and this is a story i'm not going to say here because of lack of time but i feel murshidabad deserves an attention which is which is going to bring back whole lot of tourism in the central and northern uh bengal now back to this long distance i would propose to to all the people here that we must start our walk from gangotri to ganga sagar on the day ma ganga is brought down from gangotri to mukbar the the place where she stays in the in winters and we walk walk down all the way to ganga sagar and finish it on makar sankranti mela day you know so this is going to be a 108 days 2 600 kilometers walk which probably is going to match and put us on the map of great long distance walks and and they may be having a single kind of a thing we have glaciers planes rivers uh sundarbans and the ocean and and we have about five states and five kind of cuisines which people are going to experience so there's amazing stuff which can be done by this one single proposal which i'm making on establishing grand ganga this year we're cycling down the ganga just just for your information and we're going to start on first of march and go all the way to hattie is in bangladesh we will cycle this time and go back to ganga and do this uh this amazing journey again and for 11 years we will keep going back sometimes by boat sometime by chaos sometimes by cycle and sometimes we're walking but we will be back to ganga in the end what is left for me is on behalf of uh atul ganga team and and all of the people who who like the idea of the ministry of tourism incredible india she was there when we started this and nami gange rajiv ranjanji for an awesome support which made this whole thing possible thank you uh ganga cyclothon is the event of the year for us and we look forward to your continued support i'm gonna stop sharing now and since there's no questions we move over to the next speaker probably thank you thank you everybody in fact i'm sure viewers you agree that through this little you know just a few snippets india came alive the beauty the splendor of india and the best part is the people of india the rural india that we saw was so absolutely incredible and that's why they call it ganga parikrama is so incredible now moving on from this point and keeping the time in you know there are questions but then one has to move on so i'm going to bring in the next speaker at this point and again the idea behind the variety that we are bringing to you speakers today of speakers is that if india has to move forward all the citizens have to join hands to move forward and we have therefore representing that spirit of india today none other shiri anand mahindra chairman of the mahindra group who's joining us from dubai but he said there was no way he was not going to join so welcome shiri mahindra it's a pleasure to have you i'm sure most of us know you and know about you you ahead the mahindra group which has been literally powering the tractors in india empowering therefore the rural india truly the agriculture of india and creating an athman i was reading on him and a very interesting snippet that what car does he drive he drives them b is that even a guess well that's vocal for local and he's actually been educated out of india he did go to howard but that's the indian today representing the spirit and powering and empowering and capacity building and providing jobs across india and also for us in tourism he's a fantastic brand ambassador because almost every day on his twitter handle you find one place of india showcased so he just made all the sense for us to have him today to share his thoughts on what does he think of incredible india and how do we take tourism forward in the 21st century welcome mr alan thank you very much for those very kind words and a good afternoon to all of you honorable minister of tourism culture and donor sri ji kishan reddy secretary ministry of tourism sriharvin singh the distinguished secretaries of ministries of textile culture environment and forest now when i look back at my childhood i think there were two things that created my wanderlust and my love of travel first of all my mother used to have a habit of collecting souvenirs from her travels she collected almost everything postcards from every location she visited menu cards of local restaurants monogram paper napkins tourist brochures and all kinds of miscellaneous things like that and then she would make a scrapbook out of almost every trip and my two sisters and i would eagerly wait for her to complete these and then we'd pour over them again and again the second element was that i attended a boarding school in uti in tamil nadu and camping and trekking were part of the educational process so once again this reinforced my enjoyment of new places particularly those that were off the beaten track so it wasn't surprising that during my teenage years just after i finished school i began hitchhiking along with one of my college buddies and frankly it wasn't surprising that my parents didn't try to stop me from doing that given their own love for adventure most often we take off on impulse on a weekend and hitch rides from mumbai to pune and beyond in maharashtra now you have to recognize of course that those were the days of innocence before the onset of terrorism and strong security concerns and of course pandemics so people wouldn't hesitate to give us rights in their premier padminis or hindustan ambassadors they're only two choices then and very oft

2022-02-11 04:41

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