Detailed Project Report..............................................................2 Ecotourism Development ...............................................................2 In Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary........................................................2 1 Introduction:............................................................................2 2 Potential in the Sitamata Sanctuary........................................

2 3 Historical Importance:............................................................3 4 Legal Status:..........................................................................3 5 Location:................................................................................3 6 Selection of sites:....................................................................3 7 Investment under the present project......................................4 8 Operational and Management Plan........................................6 9 Legal framework ...................................................................6 10 Project Implementation .......................................................7 11 Expected Outcomes.............................................................8 12 Risks and Uncertainties.......................................................8 13 Future Directions.................................................................8 Annexure B: Map of Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary..................12 Annexure D: Map of Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary..... ...........13

Detailed Project Report

Ecotourism Development In Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary

1 Introduction:

Eco-development projects are aimed at bringing together the three stakeholders, namely, the Protected Area management, the local communities, and the ecotourist. The Tourism Department and local tour operators are interested parties whose cooperation can help such projects take off more smoothly. The proposed State Policy on Ecotourism provides the background policy framework for working out components of such projects. The nature of public investments in ecotourism projects can be identified to fall under the following four broad categories: 1. Development of facilities for tourists inside and around the protected area. 2. Building capacity of local communities for meaningful participation in the activities of ecotourism as providers and managers of services. Community capacity building is also required for enabling local communities as stakeholders interested in ensuring long term conservation of the PA resources so as to ensure sustainable livelihood opportunities for them. 3. Development of publicity material and marketing of the products and services to the larger tourist clientele. 4. Building partnerships, with the PA management as facilitator of ecotourism activities, with the Department of Tourism, the private tour operators, and the local institutions e.g. panchayats.

Potential in the Sitamata Sanctuary

Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary offers many scenic and pristine sites of tourist interest. The present proposals aim at launching a focused programme of organised ecotourism activities around the four clusters: the Jakham Lake and wilderness around it, the religious spot of Valmiki and scenic places on way to reaching this place, Arampura FRH and around, Nangalia and Bhaiwa forest areas (see map in Annexure B). The Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the pride owner of most unique ecosystem with richest biodiversity in flora & fauna in Rajasthan. The above sites would offer the interested eco-tourist the following kinds of tourist activities in and around the Sanctuary:

Table 1: Visitor Activities: Possibilities in Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary

Visitor activity Trekking, forest walks Forest drive Night patrolling, jungle patrolling with staff Cycle trails Boat ride, water sports Village visits, cultural evenings Jungle camping Botanisation tours Pony ride, horse safari Camel ride, camel safari Bird watching, nature photography Rock climbing Hot air ballooning Hang gliding, para gliding, para sailing

Immediate potential

Potential in long term

Historical Importance:

As the name itself explains its historical & religious importance that people believes that Devi Sita spent her days of exile in this forest, where the ashram of Rishi Valmiki was situated thus sanctuary bears the name of Devi Sitamata and her famous temple is situated in the heart of the Sitamata forest area of sanctuary.

Legal Status:

Sitamata Wildlife sanctuary was declared as wildlife sanctuary vide Govt.of Rajasthan Notification No.F-11(9) Revenue/8/78 Dated 2-11-79. The sanctuary is covering to an area about 422.95 Sq km.

Location:

Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the South-East region of the Rajasthan in Chittorgarh & Udaipur where tree vary ancient mountain ranges of India namely The Aravallis, The Vindhayas and Malva plateau meet together forming the North-western limits of Teak forest. This results in to unique bio-diversity many species are yet to be discovered and identified from this area. Sitamata is situated between 74025' E and 740 40' E East longitude and 24004' N and 240 23' N North latitude.

Selection of sites:

Site selection has been done keeping in view proximity of spots of tourist importance, accessibility by road up to the base station e.g. a Forest Rest House or a private tour operators facility, keeping in view likely tourist flow from urban centres or ancillary sources such as heritage tourism near or en route to the selected ecotourism sites. Local tour operators are important since they will act as feeder source of tourists as it is unlikely 3

that tourists will come on their own from original destinations far-off from the PA, except for the dedicated nature enthusiasts whose number may be very small. The sites selected form clusters in different parts of the Sanctuary for ease of manageability. The sites selected for the present project have been marked on the map of the Sanctuary in Annexure-B.

Investment under the present project

The present project proposes an investment of Rs 61.50 lakh in various activities spread over a period of two years as described below. The detailed cost estimate of these works and activities appears in Appendix A. 1. Development of facilities for the tourists. a. Under this head, the Forest Rest Houses of Jakham, Arampura, Barisadri, and Pungatalao are to be repaired and equipped for stay of tourists. Forest Rest Houses are to play a major role as centre of tourist activities as a base camp, and as main training and capacity building centres. These are places which are safe, where forest staff is always present, and considerable public investment in infrastructure has already been made. It is proposed to leverage this investment for promoting ecotourism activities. Creating new accommodation facilities for tourists will not will be feasible economically since tourist visitation in this area can at best be only seasonal, looking to the harsh weather prevailing in the area during the major part of the year. b. Creation of basic basic amenities for stay of tourists will include ensuring safe and healthy water supply, sanitation, and lighting facilities. Thus provision of solar lighting, rain water harvesting, and water filters has been made under this head. c. Since the FRHs will act as base camps and the centres of organising all activities of ecotourism, the gear and equipment to be used by the tourists will be housed here, though provision of this equipment has been made under respective heads below. 2. Development of eco-trails a. Hiking, trekking, walking and driving in forests is a major tourist activity which, if carried out carefully and responsibly, is non-destructive to environment and provides educational and recreational value to the tourist. Selected trails take off from the FRH or from a nearby point and end in another halting place such as a camping site, the next FRH, or a village where community hosts can provide paying guest services, individually or as SHGs. Creating these trails will involve minimum of alternation of natural environment. These will be aligned to pass through places of scenic beauty, historical importance, or ecological uniqueness. b. Signage and interpretation along the trails helps the tourists in appreciating local ecology and local culture including folk use of plant resources. Extensive and carefully designed signage that blends with the 4

surroundings and which is built using local materials will be developed and put in place at strategic points. c. Along the trails, at certain spots offering close and especially rich view of the landscape, viewpoints will be built in shape of low height structure, open on sides but carrying a thatched or tiled roof or some other kind of shelter from rain. These view points or resting places are used by tourist groups for having a break for meals, or simply for savouring a view of the landscape, as well as for photography and interaction with local forest dwellers. 3. Watch towers and observation stations. These are built at high elevation points providing wide ranging panoramic views of the landscape around. These towers are also used by PA staff for fire monitoring and keeping watch on illegal movement of people and livestock in the protected area. If permanently manned, these towers can act as relaying stations for wireless communication. 4. Communication Network. Radio walky-talkies working on the same frequency as of the official network used by PA management are to be purchased so that the PA staff and the guides accompanying tourist groups can communicate for effective management and monitoring of such treks inside the PA. 5. Eco-camp facilities. It is not possible to have permanent stay facilities at different places of scenic beauty inside the PA. Eco-camps are sites where facilities are established seasonally by setting up tents (with attached toilets and water supply). These tents are removed after the tourist season is over and kept at the nearest FRH. This is a proven model that has been used by private tour operators for quite a few years. These camping sites will be designed so as not to modify the natural landscape, and leave least visible evidence once these have been wound up. Therefore no permanent construction in cement or any other construction material will be built here. Ground levelling, creating underground draining for disposal of waste water, and where necessary for avoiding man animal conflict, a fence made of chain link erected on wooden poles will be put up which is also taken away once the season is over. Camping sites will be in vicinity of natural water sources, e.g. perennial water bodies and streams, or near a host forest dweller who can supply water from his well as a paid service. 6. Equipments including tents and accessories for campsites. The tents are to be set up at identified camping sites that are of tourist interest and are safe for tourist activities as explained above. Camp equipment would include two-men tents, sleeping bags, water bottles, torches and search lights, emergency lights, cooking utensils, first aid kits, and the like. 7. Publicity, awareness and marketing. These activities are essential to launch the services once facilities are in place, and include activities like brochure and their distribution to key stakeholders and tourist information centres, hotels, etc. Setting up of web sites on the Internet, putting up signboards at airports, railways stations, etc, will form part of publicity and marketing strategy.

8. Restoration and repair of heritage sites buildings. The ancient, historic, and religious buildings inside PA need to be cleaned, made safe for visitors and maintained for tourist visits. These buildings cannot and will not be used for stay of tourists and should be visited during fixed hours only under supervision of accredited tourist guides and PA staff. 9. Unforeseen and miscellaneous expenses. These are expenses on items that do not fit any of the above categories of investment and are yet necessary to make the ecotourism project work smoothly.

8 Operational and Management Plan

Management issues would involve accreditation programmes for guides, ecotourism operators, local hosts, EDCs and SHGs for providing services and playing a participatory role in the programme. It will be necessary to provide visitors with information, educational and interpretation services, and arrangement of some of these services will be through arranged local actors as mentioned above. Infotainment will include brochures, leaflets, flyers, signboards, film shows, apart from cultural evenings organised in villages by host communities where. local artists like puppeteers, drama troupes, folk singers, dancers can provide educational and cultural experience to the visitor. Periodical training programmes for PA staff, and for other stakeholders including tour operators will be organised leading to accreditation in the end. This might include training on lodge ownership, management, basic education about natural environment, health and sanitation, hospitality services, littler management, tourist behaviour management, code of conduct, basics of ecotourism how its differs from traditional mass tourism, and development and marketing of products of ecotourism. Such plan will also include mechanism for monitoring of environmental impacts of the tourism activities. All tourist amenities will be built around the idea of environmental sustainability and include local architecture using colors and shapes that blend with natural surroundings. Facilities will mandatorily use rain water harvesting, solar electricity, recycling or composting of garbage, local plant cultivation in lawns and gardens, and provide for natural cross ventilation instead of air conditioners. Self sufficiency in food through growing local vegetables and provisioning of milk and dairy products from local market will be built into the programmes. Energy saving and water saving devices will be used to their fullest potential.

9 Legal framework
It will be necessary to address legal issues involved in implementation of ecotourism activities in PAs, including aspects such as permissible activities in protected areas, health and safety of visitors, health insurance and risk coverage. Conflict with wild animals and other natural risks involved in adventure tourism will have to be covered by insurance as provided under law.

10 Project Implementation
The following are the principal steps in implementation of the present proposals after the project has been sanctioned. 1 Preparation Phase This phase would include making enabling provisions where required in policy and law and communicating the same to all stakeholders in the intention of promoting ecotourism as an activity that is ancillary to the objective of conservation of protected areas. Role clarity will be defined through MoUs and agreements which will be arrived at in a participatory manner. This will prepare the local communities, the local tour operators, and the PA staff for owning up the project after reaching clear understanding of mutual obligations, duties, and responsibilities. Detailed work plans for creation of tourist facilities as well as the standard operation procedures for use and management of these facilities and ancillary services will be clearly spelt out in documents that will be arrived at in a participatory manner. 2 Training Phase In this phase trainings will be organised for various field level actors of different stakeholder sectors. These trainings will form the most important part of the programme and will lead to capacity building in management, as well as enhancing ability to appreciate the importance of ecotourism as a conservation tool. The effectiveness of capacity building exercise will determine the long term sustainability of the project. 3 Implementation of Works In this phase physical infrastructure and facilities will be created. This will be the principle responsibility of the PA managers though designs and procedures for implementation will be done in a participative and transparent manner so to get the best optimum value out of public funds being used. 4 Operational Phase Under this phase tourists will start flowing in groups. of which the group size and frequency will be determined through procedures already developed as described earlier. Local hosts and PA staff will be playing their roles of enabling the tourist activities in an orderly manner and providing services to the tourists. 5 Monitoring and Sustained Improvement Constant monitoring will carried out for both tourist response received through feedbacks, and the impact of the tourist activities on the PA habitat. A predetermined set of criteria and indicators, developed during the preparation phase in a participatory manner, will be used for measuring and monitoring the impacts and success of the project.

11 Expected Outcomes
It is expected that after implementation of the present ecotourism project inflow of tourists in and around Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary will grow steeply. At present organised ecotourism is virtually absent. Only pilgrims visiting holy places of religious importance visit the sanctuary. There is no flow of revenue to government on account of tourism, nor do any significant benefits flow to the local communities. The projected quantitative picture of the outcome of the project is provided at Annexure C.

12 Risks and Uncertainties

The following risks and uncertainties may be noteworthy in connection with the present project. Precautions required to minimise risks are also noted herewith: a. Legal and institutional changes required to make enabling context for these activities may not be coming forth. Even though ecotourism has been recognised widely as an activity that aids conservation of wildlife, wilderness, and protected areas in general, there are specific orders of courts and government directives that may prohibit or restrict scope of these activities. In order to avoid uncertainties on this count it would be desirable to i. Dispell all doubts that in policy as in practice ecotourism is neither prohibited in forest areas nor in protected areas, provided certain fundamental conditions imposed in interest of conservation of resources are observed by all parties concerned. Public policy explicitly stating the roles to be played by the different stakeholders viz private tour operators, Tourism Deptt, PA management, and tourists should be spelt out clearly. Private operators may not be willing to jeopardise their investment or business in an uncertain policy environment, and not much may come out of the present initiative.

ii.

b. Tourist flow anticipated may not eventually arrive in view of changing market scenario and as new opportunities present themselves to tourists, esp. the international tourists, who are the major projected clientele of these eco-tourist sites.

13 Future Directions
If flow of tourists to these destinations is found to be sustained at high rate, it may in future open possibilities of private investment for strengthening and expansion of infrastructure and building capacity of handling larger number of tourists. Such possibilities include investment intensive activities such as hot air ballooning, ropeway rides, convention centres, botanical gardens, safari parks, and the like. Investment on these facilities can be promoted under public private partnership in places where ample scope for expansion exists without compromising the environmental sustainability of the protected area concerned. 8

Annexure A: Detailed Cost Estimates of Works & Activities

SN 1 Item of Work/ Activity Development of accommodation facilities for the tourists. a. Improvement of Forest Rest House, including restoration, structural safety, repair, retrofitting for energy efficiency, improved sanitation, rainwater harvesting, solar electrification: i. Arampura FRH ii. Jakham Dam FRH iii. Punga Talab FRH iv. Barisadri FRH b. Equipping the FRHs with interpretation resources like library of maps, books, checklists, brochures c. Interpretation equipment like telescopes, binoculars Development of eco-trails, forest walks, forest drives, etc, including clearing the trails, rendering these safe for walk on foot or for driving as the case may be, putting up interpretation signage along these trails, benches for sitting at certain places where natural rock-perch etc is not available: a. Jakham Dam to Gidhmagra (7 km) b. Damdama Lalpura to Sitamata (4 km) c. Maida to Ranigarh (5 km) d. Ranigarh to Arampura (7 km) e. Dablea to Hamelpani (5 km) Watch towers and observation posts at: a. Tikhi Magri (ground height 10 m., floor area 19 sqm) b. Damdama (8.5 m, 23 sqm) c. Arampura (5.5 m, 18 sqm) Communication network, including walkie-talkie sets and base stations: a. Solar panel, batteries, and inverter at each FRH mentioned above (3 nos) b. Handset of wireless (20 nos) c. Solar Panels & batteries (6 nos) Quantity Amount

LS LS LS LS LS LS

3.00 0.60 0.40 1.10 1.50 1.35

@ 0.25 / km

1.75 1.00 1.25 1.75 1.25

LS LS LS

3.00 2.00 1.00

0.35 each 0.10 each 0.20 each

1.05 2.00 1.20

Eco-camping facilities: a. Preparation of camping sites, including levelling, clearing, underground disposal, water supply. b. network: i. Valmik Campsite LS ii. Hanuman mandir Campsite LS iii. Damdama Campsite LS Purchase of camp equipment including tents for eco-camping sites: a. Procurement of two-men tents (6) b. Procurement of camping kit consisting of sleeping bags, utensils, emergency lights, and the like (6 nos) Publicity, marketing, training, and capacity building activities: a. Developing, designing, and printing publicity materials such as brochures, maps, tourist guidebooks, manuals etc b. Designing, hosting, maintaining website for publicity and dissemination, and for marketing purposes c. Publicity through signs at airports, railway stations, tourist reception centres, roadside on highways, in public places of tourist attraction d. Organising training programmes leading to accreditation of nature guides, porters, local hosts willing to learn hospitality skills, cooks, drivers, horse / camel riding and tending, e. Training of EDCs, SHGs for building capacity in effective management of ecotourism f. Training and orientation programmes for tour private tour operators about significance and characteristics of ecotourism Restoration of heritage buildings and ramparts, including making them safe for visit, cleaning, putting interpretation information signage, etc

1.00 1.00 1.00

0.15 each

0.90

0.30 each

1.80

LS LS

2.00 0.25

LS

2.00

LS LS

2.50 2.50

LS

1.00

10

a. Valmik teerth b. Old Damdama audhi c. Sitamata shrine 9 Miscellaneous and unforeseen expenses

LS LS LS LS

1.00 0.50 0.50 1.55 TOTAL 61.50

11

Annexure B: Map of Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary

12

Annexure D: Map of Sitamata Wildlife Sanctuary

13