Women SHG promotes eco-tourism via mangrove safari in Maha

A women self-help group is trying to popularise 'mangrove safari' in the picturesque and unexplored Vengurle town of coastal Maharashtra to develop it as an eco-tourism hub. Vengurle, a hilly town situated at the southern-most tip of Maharashtra in Sindhudurg district, is just 18 km from the tourist hotspot of Goa, but not many have explored its natural beauty.

Shweta Hule, a former corporatorwho manages the self-help group (SHG) 'Swamini', in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been running the mangrove safari, managed exclusively by fisher-women, since 2017 to promote eco-tourism in the area. "Unlike Malwan in Sindhudurg, Vengurle is a remote, quiet place and that is what tourists look for to unwind," Hule told PTI.

"Tourism is not just creating five-star hotels. People want to be closer to nature and that is what tourism development should be. I hope Vengurle will have good days in future in terms of tourism development," she said.

The project is 100 per cent funded by the UNDP to create awareness about mangroves, and a group of 10 women who run it have been provided two boats, 20 life jackets and bamboo shelters at the Mandvi jetty, she said. The fisher-women were taught English trained in handling the project by a former local UNDP co-ordinator and a forest official, Hule said.

Apart from 10 tourists in one boat, a four-member team from Hule's group accompanies them to navigate the boat and a guide is there to inform tourists about biodiversity in the creek, she said. The safari operates in the 1.5-km Mandvi creek. It starts from Mandvi jetty and goes till the Mansishwar temple in Vengurle and then returns to the jetty, Hule said.

Tourists are briefed about the eight species of mangroves in the area, different kinds of migratory birds and bio-diversity in the creek. The SHG also serves authentic local cuisine to the tourists after the safari, she said.

Hule said the safari remains closed during the monsoon. This year, in wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the safari was closed since February and reopened earlier this month. She said this project is an allied activity for the women members of the SHG apart from their routine fishing business.

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