Mango Festival 2nd & 3rd Day activities

Manas, out of danger in UNESCO World Heritage Site

Today hundreds of phone calls and sms flowed in from different individuals and associations of Assam. Manas, when Help Tourism started their initiative, it was 'UNESCO, World Heritage Site in Danger', it was the same till yesterday. The news of UNESCO declaring its return to World Heritage Site came in today evening. Team Help Tourism with other partners were instrumental in creating the first positive community conservation model in 2003-4, which was recognized by the then visiting UNESCO team consisting of Kishore Rao and David Shephard.

Help Tourism could hardly afford to put together a website for the purpose and the Techno DG team helped in launching 'www.manas100.com' and Ajoy Roy had helped to put together the documentary 'Manas, my land my home', which were then our only tools to let the world know of the new model 'communities in conservation', the capacities of the Bodo youths in Manas. The centenary celebrations fell in place and the active role of the BTC, Deputy Chief, Kampa Borgoyari has been exceptional, and one of the major contributions throughout to achieve this status. 

Many more names and actions which have made it possible to achieve this impossible status will follow in this blog, www-manas100.com and Ajoy Roy's documentary as Part 01 and 02. But till then let's celebrate and work for the next goal to convince our NDFB friends to create a Manas Agenda to bring the world to Manas and help to make conservation the religion for all youths living around Manas.

Remembering Paharpur, Bangladesh

The team Paharpur Bandhu had displayed a stall at the Festival.While Samarjit was attending the Gitanjali Mango Festival 2011 and ACT Rural Tourism Bazaar, he became nostalgic about the evening at Joypurhat during the Paharpur Initiative and he took out this write-up from his bag, which I thought was interesting and should be shared through Chautare:

1st Day with Chief Guest

1st Day Gitanjali Mango Festival & ACT Rural Tourism Bazaar

10th June 2011: Welcome to Mango Festival & Rural Tourism Bazaar at 3 PM Inauguration

Friday,10^th June, 2011 (Day 1)

Programme                                    Timing            

1) Opening of the festival                                     15:00 hrs       Mela Prangan

2) Exhibition Inauguration                                   15:30 hrs       Utsav Hall

3) Aam Bazaar Inauguration                                15:45 hrs       Mela Prangan

4) Plantation programme                                     16:15 hrs      

5)Inauguration of

ACT Rural Tourism Bazaar &

Industry interaction                                               16:30hrs

5) Film Show:                                                          16:45 hrs

a)    Documentary by Ajay Roy

(Tale of a tribe)

b)   Film by Shekar Das

(Krantikal)

6) Cultural Programme                                         17:00 hrs

Bus Schedule:

10/06/2011 

From: M.C.C.S Church Road                  To: Orchid Uttorayon

From	Time of Departure	No. of Bus	To
M.C.C.S Church Road	13:30 Hrs	03	Orchid Uttorayon
M.C.C.S Church Road	14:30 Hrs	02	Orchid Uttorayon
M.C.C.S Church Road	15:30 Hrs	01	Orchid Uttorayon
M.C.C.S Church Road	16:00 Hrs	01	Orchid Uttorayon

From: Orchid Uttorayon                       To: M.C.C.S Church Road

      I.            Time of Departure: 19:00 Hrs  No. of Bus: 03

	Route
1 Bus	Regulated Market, Champasari More, Salugara, Panitanki Mora, Sevok Road, Hill Cart Road.
1 Bus	Bidhan Road, Venus More, Hill Cart Road, Church Road
1 Bus	Fulbari, Tinbatti More, Gate Bazaar, N.T.S More, Hill Cart Road.

2. Time of Departure: 20:00 Hrs  No. of Bus: 04

	Route
1 Bus	Regulated Market, Champasari More, Salugara, Panitanki Mora, Sevok Road, Hill Cart Road.
1 Bus	Bidhan Road, Venus More, Hill Cart Road, Church Road
1 Bus	Fulbari, Tinbatti More, Gate Bazaar, N.T.S More, Hill Cart Road.
1 Bus	Hill Cart Road, Baghajatin Park, Hatti More, Subash pally Bazaar.

3. Time of Departure: 21:00 Hrs  No. of Bus: 03

	Route
1 Bus	Regulated Market, Champasari More, Salugara, Panitanki Mora, Sevok Road, Hill Cart Road.
1 Bus	Bidhan Road, Venus More, Hill Cart Road, Church Road
1 Bus	Fulbari, Tinbatti More, Gate Bazaar, N.T.S More, Hill Cart Road.

Mango Festival & Rural Tourism Bazaar, 04 days to go

 

Dear friends from the media,

            Thank you for the support that you have provided to the Gitanjali Mango Festival. As you all know that with the enthusiasm and support of the teachers, students and partners of the festival and the people of Siliguri, we have taken the step to make this an annual event for North Bengal with East Himalaya, in the process of making this an International festival. As Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore had dreamt of creating a rural Bengal with resources beyond borders and at the same time take forward the deep rooted cultures of rural Bengal far and wide, we wish to implement his philosophies through this festival.

Like tea, mango too is a world renowned food product, but we at North Bengal are still not known for our Mango internationally as much we are known for our Darjeeling and Dooars Tea, and hence this Mango Festival in Siliguri, the centre of North Bengal. Gradually, we hope to make this a base for horticulture and floriculture development.

Tourism and North Bengal are terms that represent each other, and this being more of the manufacturing end of the industry, there has to be more interaction and networking among the destinations, mainly rural tourism which will make the backbone industry of North Bengal. Also, for the people of Siliguri who presently contribute to 20% of the tourists for the region and also for the local travel industry of the region who provide service to the visitors, it will be updating their product knowledge.

The Film Industry contributes in a major way in terms of sustained promotion. We have realized this in the past, but for a long time the region did not get their patronage. Now that the dynamics are reworking, we have already seen some award winning films which were shot at North Bengal, we have taken this festival ground as an opportunity to bring the makers of the award winning films for interaction with the people.

The FUN portion is the biggest attraction of any festival and we have kept all ingredients of fun through our cultural programs, art, handicrafts, cinema, documentaries, seminars, fashion, cookery classes, food and numerous activities with mangoes.

West Bengal’s mango experts like Dr.Abu Hasan and Shri.Samarendranath Khara will conduct the Mango Growers’ Mango Competition and counsel the interested entrepreuners in horticulture.

Internationally renowned Film Directors, Shri. Gautam Ghosh will inaugurate the program and Shri. Shekhar Das will be the special Guest. Both of them will interact with the cinema fans and the interested youths in Film Making from North Bengal. They will be joined by famous Documentary maker Shri. Ajoy Roy. Both Shekhar Das and Ajoy Roy will show their works for the three days of the Mango Festival and interact with viewers.

In the Rural Tourism Bazaar, we shall have stalls from Travel Another India, an internationally renowned rural tourism promoting organization, who have successfully launched rural tourism projects in Gujrat, Kerala and Karnataka. The others are Gateway of Dooars-Maynaguri, Resort Owners’ Association-Lataguri, Jaldapara Lodge Owners’ Welfare Association, Gorumara Paryatan Unnayan Committee, Pedong Village Tourism, Chilapata Ecotourism Society, Pariwar Eco & Tea Tourism-Central Dooars, Darjeeling Teesta Valley Village Tourism, Sikkim Kalij Valley Rural Tourism, Northeast Ecotourism Initiatives, Sunderbans Conservation Tourism Initiative, North Bengal Tours and Travels-Ramoji Film City, Gour Malda Tourism Circuit, Samsing-Jaldhaka Ecotourism Circuit, Shantiniketan Initiatives, Paharpur Bandhu-Bangladesh and Bahundangi Elephant View Resort-Nepal...more following in process. The tourism associations from North Bengal will be giving their projects for village tourism development and interact with the Hon’ble Minister for North Bengal Development and Hon’ble Minister for Forest, Government of West Bengal, who have given their verbal confirmation to attend the Inauguration Ceremony.

The cultural teams from Shantiniketan will dominate the show, but there will be several performances from the North Bengal side too. From classical Indian to Rabindra Sangeet to Folk Songs, all forms of dances, several plays, recitation, dance dramas etc will be the crowd pulling shows. Also, there will be several social campaigns at the festival.

The inauguration will take place at 03:00 PM on the Friday, the 10^th of June, 2011, See you all then.

Regards,

                                                Abhaya Bose, Organizing Secretary