Tourism officials fear that Char Dham Yatra could see less footfalls because of forest fires

Tourism officials of of Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam are a worried lot. They had been expecting increased footfall of pilgrims and devotees for Char Dham yatra but the adverse publicity generated as a result of forest fires in Uttarakhand could take its toll on religious tourism this year. This is more so because because this was the year they were expecting a huge footfall since the 2013 flash floods.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 1 May 2016.

The number of tourists for the Char Dham Yatra had taken a beating after the flash floods of 2013 in Uttarakhand. It resulted in a dip in the number of pilgrims visiting the four shrines in the state. And, the matter has been confounded by the nature of publicity of the forest fires in the state have received at the national level.
Consequently, tourists could get a wrong impression that the fire is everywhere and the state is unsafe for travel. Actually, the fire is raging in some selected pockets and, heavy manpower has been deployed to control the blaze.There are also prediction of rainfall and the officials hope that the situation will improve before the yatra finally commences on May 9.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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