Now wildlife lovers and nature lovers will have a new reason to go on a trip to Maharashtra. On International Tiger Day, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Tourism and the Maharashtra Forest Department signed a partnership on the basis of which VANDARSHAN (Wildlife Travel in the Region) has been launched.
Considered as a one-stop wildlife tourism adventure, the VANDARSHAN program complements deep jungle safaris with modern rail travel to provide the most immersive and exciting experience. The initiative will be available for tour packages to the most beautiful and historic wildlife areas of Maharashtra. With the ability to do it in advance and with less stress and complications with booking individual trips, travelers can enjoy a holiday in their own right without the need to travel.
The forthcoming VANDARSHAN packages will integrate all the requirements necessary from a travel perspective into one package to make a seamless trip and will offer guaranteed safaris, train rides to and from, comfortable and scenic locations, well-designed accommodation, safe surface transportation, and guided wildlife trips. This is where the combined benefits of these options will be achieved as they will help to simplify our vacation planning to be much easier for both first-time visitors and wildlife experts in general.
In addition to tourism metrics, the VANDARSHAN framework places a strong and deliberate focus on ecological conservation and regional community development. IRCTC and Maharashtra Forest Department have stressed in their joint efforts that the primary objective of this partnership is to promote responsible tourism practices that protect wildlife habitats. And in addition to this project, sustainable livelihood opportunities and economic benefits for the communities living in protected forest zones are also envisioned.
Maharashtra is a natural home of some of India’s most renowned and thriving tiger reserves and national parks including Tadoba-Andhari, Pench in Maharashtra, Melghat, Navegaon-Nagzira, and Bor Tiger Reserve. With now an even greater accessibility (with those integrated travel packages), a greater number of people will have the opportunity to visit and observe the state’s biodiversity and contribute to sustainable tourism in a way that is also a good thing to do. With nature-driven and sustainable travel gaining momentum in India, VANDARSHAN is a great step forward in wildlife tourism and in a way that’s safe for us all. If we’re going to see a tiger in the wild that could be seen as a great one, and that’s a very good thing for our future trip, we will be going to see it.
