Padubidri beach gets ‘Blue Flag Certificate’ from Centre
Udupi, August 01: The Ministry of Environment and Forest of the Central government has officially declared ‘Blue Flag Certificate’ recognition to the Padubidri beach in the district.
In a statement, deputy commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis and Tourism department assistant director Anitha Bhaskar said that under this programme, it was planned to develop beaches with clean environment and quality water in 13 states which have sea shores, in association with the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), Ministry of Environment and Forest, Beach Management Services (BMS). The clean sea shore would decide the healthy tourism and better economic index, they said.
In view of this, the central government has decided to bring sustainable tourism and healthy coastal sea shores under Blue Flag Certificate programme and implement international standard projects, it is said.
Boost for sustainable tourism
The main objective of the Beach Management Services is to encourage the sustainable tourism at Padubidri beach by managing the cleanliness, environmental education and creating awareness to local people, improving quality of water, safety measures, maintenance of security system and sea shore. Along with these factors, priority would also be given to bio-diversity, environment protection, effective solid waste management, basic infrastructure and introducing local food culture and lifestyle to the tourists under this programme, they said.
Sustainable tourism would be encouraged by giving environmental education to the local people, training, campaigning on home stays and others. The programme is being implemented with the help of the district administration, tourism department and local stakeholders. By 2018, it was planned to develop the beach as a quality beach with the help of Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) of Denmark and people could plan for their holidays.
As per the estimation, Blue Flag Certificate beaches would have annual turnover of over Rs 100 crore. So, it would help the Padubidri beach to make its presence in the international level and attract tourists, they said.
Padubidri beach end point
With the help of this international level project, within 500 mts radius of Padubidri beach endpoint, bio toilets, cloth changing rooms, bath rooms, name boards, jogging track, outdoor gym and children’s play area could be developed. To avoid the usage of plastic water bottle, pure drinking water units, solid waste processing and reuse, dust bins, seating arrangements, wheel chair facility for physically disabled, solar power usage, umbrellas, chairs, CCTV vigilance for round-the-clock, watching tower would be provided. All these works would be taken up at a cost of Rs 8 crore and A to Z Infra Services Private Limited of Gurugrama, selected by the central government, would develop the infrastructure. Along with the basic infrastructure development, the company would take care of the maintenance of the beach for next two years, they said.
Blue Flag recognition
As the Padubidri beach has got the Blue Flag recognition, international tourists would visit the beach. Former minister Pramod Madhwaraj had tried to get this recognition for Padukere beach near Malpe.
Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) would give Blue Flag recognition for international standard beaches. More than 60 countries including Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and others have got the membership of FEE. Such beaches are the favourite spots for foreign tourists.
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Indian mobile hospital treats over 2,200 cyclone-hit people as New Delhi ramps up relief efforts in
Colombo (PTI): A mobile hospital set up by India in Sri Lanka has provided medical care to over 2,200 people affected by Cyclone Ditwah, as New Delhi ramped up its assistance to the flood-ravaged island nation with engineering support and delivery of fresh relief consignments, the Indian mission here said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka has been grappling with widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse triggered by the cyclone, leaving several districts isolated and severely straining the country's disaster-response capacity.
At least 627 people have been killed and 190 remain missing as of Sunday noon due to catastrophic floods and landslides caused by extreme weather conditions since November 16.
Sharing a social media post by the Ministry of External Affairs on its X handle, the Indian High Commission said a field hospital set up by India in Mahiyanganaya near Kandy has provided medical care to more than 2,200 people affected by the cyclone since December 5.
The hospital has also performed 67 minor procedures and three surgeries, it said. The field hospital was airlifted to Sri Lanka by an IAF C-17 aircraft along with a 78-member Indian medical team on Tuesday.
In another post, the mission said Indian Army engineers, working with Sri Lanka Army Engineers and the Road Development Authority, in Kilinochchi have begun removing a damaged bridge on the Paranthan–Karachchi–Mullaitivu (A35) road, a key route disrupted by the cyclone.
"This joint effort marks another step toward restoring vital connectivity for affected communities," it said.
India has additionally sent nearly 1,000 tonnes of food items and clothing contributed by the people of Tamil Nadu. Of these, about 300 tonnes reached Colombo on Sunday morning aboard three Indian Naval ships.
High Commissioner Santosh Jha handed over the supplies to Sri Lankan Minister for Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe.
India, on November 28, launched 'Operation Sagar Bandhu', a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) initiative, to aid Sri Lanka in its recovery from the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.
Since the launch of the operation, India has provided about 58 tonnes of relief material, including dry rations, tents, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, essential cloths, water purification kits and about 4.5 tonnes of medicines and surgical equipment, the Indian mission said in a press release on Sunday.
Another 60 tonnes of equipment, including generators, inflatable rescue boats, Outboard Motors, and excavators, have also been brought to Sri Lanka, it said, adding that 185 tonnes of Bailey Bridge units were airlifted to restore critical connectivity along with 44 engineers.
Two columns of the National Disaster Response Force, comprising 80 experts and K9 units with specially trained dogs, assisted with immediate rescue and relief efforts in Sri Lanka.
Besides the field hospital in Mahiyanganaya, medical centres have also been set up in the badly hit Ja-Ela region and in Negombo. INS Vikrant, INS Udaygiri, and INS Sukanya provided immediate rescue and relief assistance to Sri Lanka.
Apart from the two Chetak helicopters deployed from INS Vikrant, two heavy-lift, MI-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force are actively involved in evacuations and airlifting relief material, the release said.
At the request of the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre, a virtual meeting was organised between DMC and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s National Remote Sensing Centre on Saturday.
Since the onset of the disaster, ISRO has been providing maps to assist DMC in its rescue efforts, the release said.
