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Gangtok: For those who fancy skiing or trekking through snow or indulging in adventure sports like paragliding and rock gliding, the second half of February will be right month to visit the hill State with the Travel Agents Association of Sikkim (TAAS) organizing a 16-days long ‘Sikkim Snow & Cultural Festival’ as a tourism recovery mission.
Tourism in Sikkim had a set back following the September 18 earthquake last year, prompting the apex body of tour operators here to plan the festival, an event which has the full backing of the State government. The festival starts from Valentine’s Day (14 February) and concludes on 29 February.
“The State government has already completed the relief works and restoration activities are on for the infrastructure damaged by the earthquake. We also want to strengthen the financial health of Sikkim by encouraging tourism business which had suffered after the earthquake. We are on a tourism recovery mission through this festival. Several other tourism festivals will be held this year so that the tourist traffic is restored back to the pre-earthquake level”, said tourism minister Bhim Dhungel while releasing the promotional items like poster, website and T-shirts of the ‘Sikkim Snow & Cultural Festival’ to the media.
The festival’s mascot is snow leopard, an endangered species which is found in the Himalayan region including higher reaches of North Sikkim. Cartoons of snow leopard are used doing the activities based on adventure, culture, nature, package tours and competitions as proposed in the festival with the involvement of various village and State level organizations. “Snow festival is ideally selected for the month of February as most of the high-altitude parts of Sikkim will have a good cover of snow for tourists to enjoy. January-February is the lean period for tourism activities in Sikkim whereas this time of the year has its own charm”, said TAAS president Lukendra Rasaily.
Snow Line tours, at areas above 8000 ft such as Lachen, Lachung, Gurudongmar Lake, Tsogmo Lake and Nathu La, will be conducted along with snow trek through Yuksom-Dzongri, Uttarey-Phoktey Dara trails during the festival. A special attraction offered is bird watching excursion treks and camping along with butterfly watching and village walks at Dzongu in North Sikkim, Maintam wildlife sanctuary in South district and Pelling in West district.
Adventure activities like mountain biking rally, trekking, camping, angling, paragliding and kayaking are planned in different parts of the State along with entertainment activities like cultural shows, food festivals, yak rides and fashion shows are on the list.
We are expecting around 50,000 tourists during the festival and all tourism stakeholders are working collectively to achieve this target, said the tourism minister. State tourism secretary R Telang said that the snow festival will be used as a tool to rejuvenate tourism business, rekindle the tourism stakeholders’ enthusiasm. “Most importantly, we want to restore the position of Sikkim as the most favoured eco-tourism destination in the country through this festival. The role of the State government is to facilitate and support this initiative of TAAS”, he said.
“Our target clients are from the middle and upper class tourists from India and also from the South East Asian countries. Sikkim is one of the nearest snow points to the South East Asian countries and we want to attract them with this festival. Honeymooners and business houses will be the main focus of the marketing strategy. We are in contact with matrimonial sites to promote the festival. We have engaged ten youths who are sending 50,000 emails daily to different travel agencies, tour operator associations, corporate houses, specialized groups and clubs about the festival”, said the TAAS president.
All tour operators have been sensitized and requested to offer special snow festival discounts to tourists, added Rasaily. He added that Sikkim government and TAAS will be soon conducting press meets at Guwahati, Calcutta and Delhi about the festival.
Sikkim Hotel & Restaurant Association president Bhanu Rasaily said that hotels in Sikkim will be offering 20 to 30 percent discount to the tourists. “We are contacting our counterparts in Mumbai, Gujarat and West Bengal about the snow festival”, he said.

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Guwahati: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has appealed to the people of northeast India to defy the militants’ diktat and celebrate the forthcoming 63rd Republic Day (of India) in a befitting manner. Reacting to the boycott call of the auspicious Day by more than ten separatist armed groups, the journalist organization urged the people to remember the immense sacrifice of the martyrs of India’s Freedom Movement.
“We should celebrate the Republic Day (also Independence Day) to honour hundred thousand patriots and martyrs who faced all troubles to make India independent out of British colonial rule,” it is said in a JFA statement issued by its president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria.
At least 12 outfits including the anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom, Coordination Committee (umbrella organisation for seven militant outfits of Manipur), Kamatapur Liberation Organisation, National Liberation Front of Tripura, Tripura Peoples’ Democratic Front and Hynnewtrep National Liberation Front had called for a general shutdown on Republic Day.
They also urged the indigenous people of the trouble-torn region to ensure the boycott of Republic Day starting from 1 am to 5.30 pm on January 26. Most of the militant outfits of northeast India have madeit a habit to issue boycott call before every Republic Day and
Independence Day as symbol of protest against “New Delhi’s colonial rule” in the alienated region. However the common people start rejecting their appeal and joining the government programme and community celebration related to both the auspicious Days.
Meanwhile, JFA has invited all journalists and patriotic citizens to participate in the R-Day celebration at Guwahati Press Club on Thursday, where the national flag will be hoisted at 11 am by a city based senior journalist.

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Rangpo: Large cardamom price showed a declining trend in the month of December and January which caused suspension of large cardamom auction in Rangpo conducted by NERAMAC limited.
The large cardamom growers were reluctant to sell their produce due to sudden decline in the price and, on the other hand, the leading dealers are also in distress estimating huge loss on their earlier purchased products.
However, after the festival of Makar Sankaranti, prices started increasing due to several reasons and traders cum producers felt somewhat relieved by seeing uptrend in the market.
At the request of exporters, importers, large cardamom dealers and producers, the NERAMAC has now decided to organize the season’s third and this year’s first auction on 1st Februry12 at Spices Board office, Rangpo.
According to one report, earlier it was observed that the quantity imported from Nepal was comparatively less. But there was good flow of large cardamom supply from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland this year. However, due to plant disease, supply from these two states is likely to drop from March 2012 onwards. That means more demand for Sikkim product and better price.