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Uttarakhand to provide location monitoring wrist-bands to trekkers for emergencies
Stressing on tourism promotion in Uttarakhand , Sandhu said more work needs to be done on improving connectivity in the state. During the review meeting on Thursday, the chief secretary, while saying that the Char Dham yatra is seasonal, emphasised that Uttarakhand has immense potential for off-season tourism too.
The Uttarakhand government is planning to provide location monitoring wrist-bands to trekkers and mountaineers so that their location can be tracked through satellite devices during emergency situations. This will help the authorities to rescue such people if they go missing or get caught in extreme weather conditions in the higher reaches of the Uttarakhand Himalayas.
Chief Secretary SS Sandhu gave directions to officers concerned during the review of the tourism department on Thursday. Sandhu said such location monitoring wrist-bands should be provided to trekkers and mountaineers so that their location can be tracked during emergency situations and they can be saved by rescue teams swiftly.
Many mountaineers have lost their lives in the state, after they went missing or were caught in extreme weather events during mountaineering and trekking expeditions. Earlier this month, rescuers recovered the bodies of four Indian Navy personnel who went missing during an avalanche on Mt Trishul at an altitude of 6,700 metres in Chamoli district.
Earlier on September 24, an expedition of the Indian Army to scale Satopanth peak in Gangotri National Park, found the body of a mountaineer who was part of an expedition of the army sent to scale the same peak in 2005 in which a few mountaineers had gone missing. Satopanth peak which is 7075 m high is the second highest peak in the Gangotri National Park situated in the Garhwal Himalayas in the state.
In June this year, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) rescued two trekkers, including one foreigner from Slovenia (a country in Central Europe), from the Hemkund Ghangaria trek route in Chamoli district.
In September 2019, a 37-year-old Hungarian mountaineer Peter Wittek had gone missing during an expedition to the 7120-metre-high Mount Trishul located in Garhwal Himalayas in Chamoli district. The missing mountaineer was part of the six-member Singaporean-Vietnamese-Hungarian-Mauritian mountaineering expedition to Mount Trishul between September 13 to October 8. I
During the review meeting on Thursday, the chief secretary, while saying that the Char Dham yatra is seasonal, emphasised that Uttarakhand has immense potential for off-season tourism too. “Schemes should be framed to promote off-season tourism in the state and officials should explore more possibilities in this regard,” he said.
Stressing on tourism promotion in the state, Sandhu said more work needs to be done on improving connectivity in the state. “Work should be started at the earliest on the construction of helipads and heliports in the state. Priority should be given to building helipads and heliports in and around tourist spots in the state. Those areas, which have lagged in tourism development due to connectivity issues should be brought under focus,” he said
The chief secretary also pointed out that while providing facilities for tourists, care should be taken that all age brackets are catered to. “Young tourists love technology. apps and a website should be designed where young tourists get all sorts of information. But for elders, who are not so tech-savvy, information should be provided through offline means. The tourist spots should also be made child-friendly,” he said
Sandhu also directed the officials to develop resorts in such areas which have good tourism potential but have not been developed due to lack of facilities. “These resorts should be initially run by the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam and Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam and later after they should be promotable, or should be sold to private players. The money raised should then be used in the development of these tourist places
The chief secretary said his directions should be implemented under
