From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai :Despite COVID induced situation the Orang National Park and Tiger Reserve in Darrang district in recent time has managed to draw the attraction of the visitors thereby bringing a ray of hope for the tourism industry of the state . The number of visitors that had entered the Park in the month of December , 2020 is almost double that was recorded in the previous year 2019. “ Despite COVID there is cent percent increase in the number of visitors in December ,2020 in comparison to December 2019. In December ,2019 the Park recorded altogether 500 visitors including five foreign tourists while more than 950 Indian visitors have been recorded in the same month of 2020. No foreign tourist has visited due to COVID.” , said BV Sandeep , DFO , Mangaldai Wildlife Division while talking to PNI. “ This has been possible due to the efforts made by our State Forest Minister and care taken by the Park staff . We are expecting more visitors in the month of January as from the feedback we have received from the visitors , they are quite happy visiting the Park and apart from sighting of different species of wild animals and more encouragingly for us many of them saw tigers too.” , DFO Sandeep added.
The claim of the DFO was found to be true as a visitors’ couple Prakash Jain and Shilpa Jain in the same breath stated before media that they had seen tiger and enjoyed the green environment better than Kaziranga . “ We visited Kaziranga several times . There is plain grass land in Kaziranga but in Orang have enjoyed the total forest. Its natural beauty is better than Kaziranga . We saw rhino in Kaziranga , here also we have seen rhino but sighting of the tiger was really uncommon .”, the visitors couple said . The visitors were also full of praise for the quality jeep safari arranged by the Park authority .
However the tourist potentiality of the National Park yet to be tapped properly as the Park authority could not keep the request of many prospective tourists due to lack of night stay accommodation facilities near the Park . The Prashanti Lodge of the State Tourist Department which used to facilitate accommodation to a good no of visitors has remained closed for the last two years due to its deplorable condition . Moreover the deplorable condition of the stetch of the road near Kopati leading to the Park has also failed to draw the attention of the Lok Nirman Department The forest department well ahead of the tourist season requested the Tourism department for its early repairing and renovation but till date no initiative has been visible . Meanwhile DFO Sandeep has made an appeal to other relevant departments and private entrepreneurs to come forward and make some quality accommodation arrangements outside the Park to draw more tourists and also help to grow the economy .
