Rajamahendravaram: Ecotourism receives tremendous response in Agency

Rajamahendravaram: East Godavari district is named for various tourisms such as river basedtourism, temple tourism etc and one among them is 'ecotourism', which is getting tremendous response from the tourists from across the State.

The State Forest Department started ecotourism in 2016 with an aim to provide livelihood tothe tribal people and inculcate interest among the people on nature. Thousands of tourists are thronging the Agency area to enjoy ecotourism on holidays and weekends to the picturesque areas.

As part of the project, the Forest Department constructed cottages near Maredumilli in the Agency area and handed over them to tribal people for their maintenance. All the cottages, waterfalls and other beauty spots are located in a distance of 15kms of Maredumilli on Bhadrachalam road.

Luxury air-conditioned and ordinary cottages available with various rentals for the tourists. In Vana Vihari area as many as 14 cottages available of them two are airconditioned and remaining are ordinary cottages. Waterfalls such as Amruthadhara, Jala Taranginiare another attraction. The cottage rents are as follows. Airconditioned cottage Rs 4,000, rent of seven cottages Rs 2,500 each,Rs 3,000 for two cottages and Rs 4,000 for three cottages.

In Junglestar area, there are four cottages and rent of each cottage is Rs 4,000 including food and at JalaTarangini area the rent of each cottage is Rs 2,000. Cottage bookings availablethrough online and over phone. In addition to this, 40 private cottages are also available, and the cottage tariff isdifferent from department cottages. As many as 32 tribal people are maintaining the cottages and they take the remaining amount, aftermaintenance expenditure. The department formed community-based units headed by a committee

with a department official and a non-official etc and cottage rents etc deposited in the jointaccount. Moreover, 1,500 tribal people are getting livelihood on ecotourism and some moreare putting their endeavour to get bread and butter by maintaining bamboo chicken shops.

When contacted, divisional forest officer C Selvam said that the number of tourists are increasing in the Agency area. The waterfalls and other beautiful spots are attracting the tourists, he said.