Agartala, December 05, 2022: Tripura’s Information and Cultural Affairs minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Sunday said that the state despite being a small one has endless potential to develop the tourism industry.

While inaugurating the Butterfly Festival 2022 organized at Heritage Park here in Agartala city on Sunday under the initiative of the Forest Department, ICA minister Chowdhury said that the current government has taken the tourism industry very seriously since the beginning.

“Every tourist center in the state is full of natural beauty including Chabimura, Narikelkunja, Unakoti, Neermahal, etc. These spots should be developed as international tourist spots. It can increase the attraction of tourists. The income of the state will increase”, he added.

The Butterfly Festival was held for the second time this year under the initiative of the Forest Department. This exceptional festival started last year. On this day, ICA minister and other guests flew butterflies in the open air to increase the excitement of the festival.

Chowdhury commented that the state government departments organized various festivals at different times to make people happy.

“All humans have the desire to know the unknown and to know the unknown. Everyone wants to know what will happen during the Butterfly Festival or Prajapati Utsav. Like other departments, the forest department also conducts various social programs in addition to its own work,” he added.

The ICA minister said “The lifespan of butterflies is very short. They live only from 15 days to about 30 days. But even in this short period of time, the butterfly brings joy to people. They play an important role in beautifying the eco system of the environment. In this way, people need to take a special role to make the society beautiful. Humans have a lot to learn from butterflies. Everyone should come forward to make the society beautiful and pure by learning from them. Besides, everyone should have the mindset to do something for the state, country and society. Society cannot be made beautiful by excluding anyone, the country cannot be moved forward. For this there should be a concerted effort of all. Only then will it be possible to build one Bharat Shrestha Bharat, one Tripura Shrestha Tripura.”

On the occasion, Principal Secretary of Forest Department KS Shetty said that although the size of Tripura state is small, there is no dearth of wildlife and bio-diversity here. Tripura has about 250 species of butterflies. These colorful butterflies are loved by everyone from children. So the forest department is trying to increase the number of butterflies to make the tourism industry of the state more attractive.

Addressing the gathering, the PCCF of Forest Department – Dr Avinash Kanfade remarked that to raise awareness among the people, festivals are being organized with animals and birds in different parts of the state.

As part of this, Gajraj Festival at Amarpur, Bison Festival at Trishna Sanctuary and other festivals will be held. One of its objectives is to protect the balance of the environment besides animals, birds and plants.

Sabhadipati of Paschim Tripura Zilla Parishad Antara Sarkar Deb, APCCF RK Shamal, CCF Dr Shashi Kumar, DFO Jayakrishnan DK and others were among the distinguished guests present on the occasion.

Various cultural programs including Prajapati dance, Mamita dance were held on the occasion.