According to them, while Madi could also have developed as a wonderful tourist destination and benefitted from tourism, the people have so far got nothing but just lost their crops and sometimes even life to animal menace. Lately, the locals are excited as tourist route through Madi to Sauraha is under discussion among stakeholders.
Chitwan National Park, Hotel entrepreneurs in Madi and the locals are brainstorming over ways to enhance Madi's tourism potentials. Just three months ago, Magar community in Madi had started home-stay services for tourists. This business is going on pretty well, igniting hopes among the locals that lot more could be done to develop Madi as a tourism center. On Thursday, the stakeholders had held formal meeting at Sauraha to discuss over the topic.
Several community leaders as well as community forest members from Madi had reached Sauraha a day before in order to take part in the meeting. During the meeting they had pressed on the need to give priority to the possibilities in Madi.
"Let me talk about a tourist from USA. He wanted to see Baikunthe lake. He said he had viewed it in the internet and was showing me its map," said Ram Kumar Aryal, officer at the National Nature Conservation Fund, Sauraha. "However, I did not even know that Baikunthe lake is in Madi. Later he was so glad to find it," he added.
The tourist remaining unaware of the location of the lake was the height of ignorance and the same level of ignorance is shared by the locals, said Aryal. "There's lack of awareness among us that we could help bring more tourists here," said Aryal. "Much much advertisement is needed and there'll be miraculous flow of tourists. We need to develop all needed infrastructures," he claimed.
Meanwhile, Naradmani Poudel, former president of Ayothyapuri VDC in Madi stated that he has frequented Madi - Sauraha route three times in order to study the possibility for tourism purpose. “The first time it took 12 hours for me to reach Sauraha from Madi. The second time it took only eight hours. And yesterday, I could make it just within six hours," Poudel said.
Manbahadur Pun Magar, president of Madi Home stay Management Committee, urged for quick construction of Madi - Sauraha trekking route. "This should be developed without delay. This is very important to draw tourists to Madi. They'll thoroughly enjoy the trek as they can see mesmerizing views of several wildlife and also different human settlements. They love to study cultures and lifestyle. We need to develop infrastructure first and then advertise it," he said.
Similarly, Dilip Nali, president of Chitwan Tourism Development Board, Chitwan, also stressed for the need to have the trekking route as soon as possible. "Baikunthe lake, Panch Pandav area, Someshwor Kalika temple and so on could attract high number of tourists. Madi indeed has high tourism potential, " he said.
According to Basu Dhungana, president of Mriga Kunja Bufferzone, Sauraha, two routes connecting Madi and Sauraha would be great. He opined that making two routes would even excite the tourists and greater tourism benefit could be achieved.
"More houses can offer home stay, more locals will benefit while the tourists would love travelling through different routes," he said. He further said that Madi can easily draw 10,000 tourists in a year.
According to Ram Chandra Kandel, chief conservation officer at Chitwan National Park, the park has lots of planning to promote tourism in the district. “The main aim of the National Park is conservation of wildlife here in the jungle. There are countless benefits of such conservation and all of them might not be direct or visible. But the benefit the tourists give is visible. We have to be careful that we are not harming the invisible benefit while running after direct benefits,” he said. He hinted that any sort of development including the trekking route is welcome until and unless that harms wildlife. He said he is in favor of Madi-Sauraha trekking route.
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