Cyclone Bulbul: Limited tourism activities resume in Sundarbans
The Forest Department has decided to allow limited-scale tourism in the Sundarbans during November -- including a stop to all tourism activities between November 25 and 27 -- following cyclone Bulbul.
The decision was taken at a meeting between Tour Operators Association of Sundarbans (TOAS) and the Forest Department, at the conservator’s office of Khulna yesterday.
Participants of the meeting also decided that tourists would not be allowed to enter Katka area, the part of the mangrove forest that is the most sensitive in terms of wildlife habitat.
Seven tourist vessels, which had already taken permission, were allowed to enter Sundarbans yesterday, a day after the Forest Department announced suspension of tourist access to the Sundarbans for assessment of the loss of forest and animals.
Md Moyeen Uddin Khan, conservator of forests in Khulna Circle, told The Daily Star that they will monitor whether tourism activities were going on in a limited scale.
“Considering the tourist season of Sundarbans, we took the decision,” Moyeen said. “Tourists usually visit different tourist spots in the eastern part of the Sundarbans, which was not damaged during cyclone Bulbul,” he also added.
Some camps, wooden pontoons, jetties and walkways were damaged in the cyclone.
At least 20 percent trees of the western part of the Sundarbans are damaged, said an official, preferring not to be named. But almost half of those will grow back, the official added.
Around 900 employees of 63 camps under four range offices of the Forest Department started the work on Monday, to assess the trail of destruction left behind by the cyclone.
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