River rafting: Uttarakhand
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
2010
The Economic Times, 2 Aug, 2015
A 2010 review of the 36 camping sites along the Rishikesh-Kaudiyala stretch of Ganga by Wildlife Institute of India found that 14 of them are not recommended as camping sites because of the potential impact on wildlife and their habitats.
Mushrooming of camps
The Times of India, Aug 02 2015
Seema Sharma
Lack of policy to blame for mushrooming of camps
Rafting on the stretch of Ganga between Rishikesh and Kaudiyala began in 1980, and beach camping followed five years later with all of five people. There are around 135 camps, spread haphazardly over more than 1,80,000 sqm, involving hundreds of operators. The operators and forest officials are unanimous in blaming this chaos on the absence of a dedicated government policy to regulate the proliferation of these camps.
The revenue and forest departments follow a set of 25 guidelines -on sewage prohibitions and meatliquor consumption at camp sites -but even the negligible monitoring they exercise is defined by a lack of sensitivity for environmental concerns.
S P Subudhi, conservator of forests at Bhagirathi Circle, Muni-ki-Reti, who supervises beach camping on reserved forest land from Kaudiyala to Rishikesh, said, “The forest department gives beach camp licences for five years, renewed every year. At the end of the season, each of the 36 camps on reserved forest land is examined by officials for violations.“ However, he admitted that a concrete beach camp policy has not been enforced.
