February 22: In a bid to attract more tourists, the Shuklaphanta Festival kicked off in the Shuklaphanta National Park in Kanchnapur district on Wednesday.

The Bhimdutta Municipality organized the Festival aiming to promote the National Park that spreads in an area of 305 square kilometres in the south-eastern part of Kanchanpur district.

The national park is home to a wide variety of flora, faunas and rich vegetation. The Park, which was a hunting reserve initially in the 1969, was turned into a National Park in 2017, said the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.

District Coordination Committee Kanchanpur Chief Durga Dutta Bohara inaugurated the festival and stressed the need to develop the National Park as a tourist destination. 

"We have rare species of wildlife in our Shuklaphanta National Park. It is imperative we promote this Park and develop this place as the destination for foreign and domestic tourists," said Bohara. He urged everyone to work for the promotion of tourism in the park. 

Bhimdutta Municipality Mayor Padam Bogati expressed confidence that the festival would help in the  tourism development in the district. “If the dry port, Mahakali Corridor, Majhgaun Airport, and Daijichhela Industrial Area are operated, the tourism business here will boom,” Bogati said. 

Similarly, Pitamber Joshi,  President of Kanchanpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, argued that the local government should bring forward tourism promotion programmes in coordination of the private sector. He argued that the government should ensure an easy access to tourism destinations apart from putting in place necessary amenities. 
The 10-day festival will feature discussions, a secondary school level oratory competition on the importance of tourism and tourism conservation, sight-seeing excursions, observation of herds of blackbuck and tourism promotional events, said the organizers.