WB Tourism to organise a two-day Bishnupur Utsav from Dec-27

Kolkata: For the first time Tourism department of the West Bengal Government would organise a two-day Bishnupur Utsav from December 27 showcasing colourful classical dance, besides instrumental and vocal performance by exponents in respective fields.

Announcing this here yesterday, state's Tourism Minister Manab Mukherjee told reporters that a dynamic illumination of Rasmanch and other heritage monuments of Bishnupur would be inaugurated by him on the occasion, besides the newly constructed Bishnupur Tourist Lodge.

Popular as capital of the Malla Kings of Mallabhum, Vishnupur in Bankura district is known for its famous for its beautiful terracotta temples and artifacts. The minister said that these temples stand testimony to the exquisite craftmanship for the artisans of the region, where the Rasmanch, Shyam Roy Mandir and Jorbangla are selected by the state's Tourism Development Corporation for'intelligent dynamic illumination' at a cost of Rs 60 lakh.

Built in 16th century by the King Beer Hambira, the Rasmancha temple has an elongated pyramidical tower, surrounded by hut-shaped turret. It was the stage where the idols were used to be kept for public worship during'Ras Utsav'. Built by the King Raghunath Singha Dev II in the 17th century, the ornate terracotta carvings in Jorebangla temple are set off by the roof in the classic Chala style of Bengal architecture.

Built in the year 1643 by the King Raghunath Singha, the wall of the Shyam Roy Temple was richly decorated with terracotta carvings featuring aspects of Lord Krishna's life. Besides tourism department, Micro and Small Scale Enterprise would also showcase their handloom and handicraft products in different stalls during the festival.

Tiger census 2008-09 begins in West Bengal

Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary (WB), Dec 18 (ANI): The annual tiger census for the year 2008-09 in West Bengal began from Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary (MLS) on the foothills of Himalayas in Darjeeling today. The census is being carried out every year in parts of Bengal to get a figure of the number of tigers residing in the area.

India has lost over 50 per cent of its tiger population in the past five years with the numbers dwindling to 1,411 from 3,642 in 2001-02, according to the latest tiger census report released early this year. As per this report North Bengal is left with only 10 tigers as against 349 earlier.

A total of 30 teams, each headed by a forest officer, will monitor over a total area of over 200 square kilometers from Kuersong range to the Bauxar tiger reserve forest in Bengal to find out whether the tigers are breeding in the sanctuary.

“The population of tigers has always been very small in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. So we will check their habitat and prey base in order to find out whether any breeding is happening or not. We will try to find the evidences of the cubs ,” said P. D. Bhutia, Chief Conservator of Forest, MLS, Darjeeling.

The monitoring will be conducted for five days around all the forestlands of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.The search would be carried out mostly on the basis of the pugmarks, scats of the tigers and other modern techniques.

“From today onwards till December 22 we will do this exercise at those places where we think we might be able to get evidence of the tigers,” Bhutia added. The assessment of the data of the previous census has shown that the tiger has suffered due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat and its prey.