Tourist friendly Manas India and Bhutan


India, Bhutan suggest a seamless Manas
- Officials of both countries decide on national park without borders to make it more tourist-friendly
Guwahati, Nov. 20: Tourists to the Manas National Park would soon be able to move freely into its Bhutan-based portion, thanks to a joint initiative by park officials of both countries to promote Manas as a composite entity.
This, among many other issues, was discussed at the India-Bhutan Manas coordination meeting on tiger conservation held at Gelephu in Bhutan on November 18-19. Indian park officials also visited the Royal Manas National Park during their stay in Bhutan.
Royal Manas National Park field director Tenzing Wangchuk told The Telegraph over phone from Bhutan, “Attempts should be made to form a tourist circuit connecting both the parks to attract more tourists.”
He agreed that this was for the first time that groundwork had been done to encourage tourist movement in the entire park.
At present, foreign tourists visiting the Royal Manas National Park have to get a visa to visit the Indian side. Even Indian tourists have to fulfil several norms to visit the Bhutan side.
“The idea is to simplify the procedures so that movement of tourists becomes easy from one park to another,” Manas National Park field director A. Swargiary said.
In fact, the Royal Manas National Park has opened its gates to tourists only a few months back.
“In terms of international cooperation, Manas National Park in India just had its world heritage site in danger status removed and plans to carefully develop the wildlife sanctuary as a sustainable unique tourist destination. Together with Bhutan’s RMNP, the two parks can now work together to provide and promote more eco-tourism opportunities in the region,” a WWF Bhutan report said.
Sources said the decision could be formally implemented only after being cleared by the ministries concerned, adding that more meetings would be held next month to simplify the procedures involved.
The meeting also decided to start joint patrolling in a coordinated manner and start information sharing.
“If there is information about illegal activities on either side, the park directors will call each other. Earlier, it was done at a local level,” the official said.
Camera trapping of Manas tigers, carried out in the Bansbari and Bhuyanpara ranges on the Indian side in November last year and the Manas range on the Bhutan side in January this year, had revealed that tigers roamed freely across the border.
“Four common tigers were caught on camera, which proves that they migrate from one park to another,” a forest official said.
Both countries have agreed to come out with a joint report on the camera trapping, with pictures and population estimates.
Sources said 10 tigers were spotted in Manas range of Royal Manas National Park, while nine were spotted in the Manas National Park.
A report prepared on camera trapping in lower foothills of Royal Manas National Park by the Bhutan-based Ugyen Wangchk Institute for Conservation and Environment said camera-trapping exercises were under way in Umling and Gomphu ranges, which could be supporting 15-20 tigers.


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Guwahati-- the new luxury destination


Guwahati-- the new luxury destination
Guwahati-- the gateway city to Northeast India is fast turning into a hot destination for international luxury brands, services and assets.
This fact was highlighted in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-AT Kearney Indian Luxury Review report released last month. While focussing on car brands with more than 50 per cent of their dealerships outside the metros, it said Guwahati was a potential destination of luxury products as well as services and assets.
Multinational automobile giant Volkswagen, which debuted in the city this year, said it was already selling more than 40 cars a month — a sales figure which is a pointer to the fact that the city is growing in terms of demand and a taste for luxury.
The report also said the luxury market in India was gaining increasing visibility with each passing year. “While the ‘buzz’ generated by this sector is disproportionately high compared to the size of the market today, it does indicate that most global luxury brands recognise the potential of India’s luxury market. Giv-en the high growth rate of the Indian market compared to mature economies, it is only likely that interest in the Indian market will increase in the days ahead,” it added.
The country’s luxury market witnessed a robust growth of 20 per cent in the past year and is estimated to have reached $5.75 billion in 2010.
Another pointer to its growing desirability of the city in particular and the region as a whole is upcoming five star hotels to be set up by hospitality majors like Taj, Hyatt and Marriot groups in different parts of Assam and Meghayala.
In keeping with this trend, Sohum Shoppe Limited, a leading multi-brand retail chain of the region, is opening the Sohum Emporio — a multi-brand mall. The mall, which is coming up on the GS Road, is scheduled to open for customers on November 19 and will have company outlets of 48 top national and international brands under on roof.
Sohum Shoppe CEO Siddarth Jalan said the company had made a proper survey of brands to shortlist the hot-selling ones. “The best part was that we were recognised. When we approached people to open outlets here, they knew of Sohum, which was a plus point,” he said.
“The Northeast is a fashion-oriented market and dressing sense of the people here is better than many others. This gives us hope that there is market for luxury products. We are bringing in products which would sell in the Guwahati market,” Jalan said.
He said the company was looking at Rs 10-crore turnover in the first year and there were plans to enter Shillong later.
Some of the brands that would be on display are Body Shop, Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK, Calvin Klein, Swarovski, Veromoda, Jack and Jones, Esprit, Gant, Mothercare and Nike.
A senior official of Jack and Jones India said Guwahati was a place where brands could come up in a big way. “If we do not have brands in the market, how do we know the strengths of the market,” the official said, adding that the Sohum Emporio outlet would be the company’s first in Guwahati.
“We also look at the brand mix where we set up our outlets,” the official added.
Amit Dhanjani, marketing head of GAS India, a premium jeans brand, hoped it would be a good debut in Guwahati.
Tommy Hilfiger, a market leader in the highly competitive premium imported designer apparel sector, also has a showroom in the mall.
Tommy Hilfiger India CEO Shailesh Chaturvedi said they were excited to make their debut in Guwahati and hoped to do well. “A lot of customers from Guwahati are buying our brand in other places and when it is available in Guwahati, the response should be good. We have been doing extremely well in non-metro cities,” he said.
The apparel brand was launched in India in 2004.

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North east in cashew mood


http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111105/jsp/northeast/story_14708735.jsp
Council cashes in on cashew
- ICAR shortlists eight varieties from 25 to grow in region
ROOPAK GOSWAMI
Guwahati, Nov. 4: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is looking towards the Northeast to increase cashew production meet the growing demand for the cash crop.
As a step in that direction, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research is evaluating eight released varieties developed in different cashew-growing states, which will be suitable for the region, a non-traditional area in cashew production.
“We are now looking at eight varieties of cashew nuts which can be grown quickly before the onset of rainfall,” an official at the All India Coordinated Research Project on cashew in Barapani said.
Altogether 25 varieties were given, but eight were chosen to be grown early in the Northeast considering the rainfall situation, the official said.
A cooperating centre has been established under the project at the ICAR research complex for the Northeast at Barapani in Meghalaya.
“The evaluation will help identify varieties suitable for the region. Apart from this activity, locally available germplasm — collection of genetic resources for an organism — having desirable yield attributes will also be collected and evaluated at this centre,” the director of Karnataka-based Directorate of Cashew Research, M.G. Bhat, told The Telegraph.
Bhat said the promising germplasm lines would be involved in breeding programmes for developing varieties and hybrids suitable for the region.
The present area in the Northeast under cashew is about 20,000 hectares with a production of 15,000 tonnes.
Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura are the best states for cashew cultivation followed by Manipur barring Jiribam district.
“There is good scope in the Northeast but farmers will have to emphasis more on scientific cultivation,” the project official said.
The North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (Neramac) is also setting up a cashew nut processing plant, which will produce four tonnes of raw cashew nuts daily in Mancachar district of Dhubri.
“It should get commissioned by April next year,” a senior Neramac official said.
The corporation had a cashew nut plant in Agartala, which was producing only 500kg per day, which was not enough. It is looking at a different location with increased production.
To meet the growing demand of cashew kernel in India and the international market, every year, 50,000 hectares of area is brought under cashew production by planting 10,000 million grafts at the rate of 200 plants per hectare.
India has the largest area under cashew production and stands as the second largest producer of cashew in the world. Vietnam, Ivory Coast and Brazil are India’s competitors for cashew production and export.
However, the country requires about 1.3 to 1.4 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts to cater to the needs of large processing units with 5 lakh workers, especially women.
The country is producing about 0.70 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts annually and exports about 0.11 million tones of cashew kernels to over 65 countries of the world, which brings about Rs 2,906 crore revenue.

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