After Sindhu, it's Brahmaputra Darshan in Arunachal

After Sindhu, it's Brahmaputra Darshan in Arunachal
KOTA NEELIMA

NEW DELHI, FEB 17: After organising the Sindhu Darshan festival about 60 km from the Indo-Pak border last year, the Tourism Department has shifted focus to the river Brahmaputra and the Indo-Chinese border this year. About 50 km from the border -- just 10 km as the crow flies -- the Tourism Department is planning to hold a festival of the river Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh.

Scheduled for February 24-26, Brahmaputra Darshan will be inaugurated by Union Home Minister L.K. Advani. The venue is a small hamlet, Roing, in the Dibang valley.

Roing is one of the villages which was inundated by mysterious floods. If the international satellite pictures procured by the Arunachal Pradesh government were to be believed, the cause of the untimely floods was on the other side of the border.

After entering India, three tributaries Siang, Dibang and Lohit flow through Arunachal Pradesh before they converge to become Brahmaputra in the plains of Assam. The tributary of Dibang flows through Roing on which the three-day festival would be held.

``It is an important river in the North-East, which needs to be highlighted especially to keep the spirit of nationalism alive in the local people,'' says a senior official of the Tourism Department.

Explaining why priority is being given to rivers on the frontiers, the official says, ``We prefer such rivers so that the local population of the far off states recalls that they are part of Indian civilisation and that the rest of the country remembers these regions for their fabled history.''

Besides the historical importance of the venue, the festival is also expected to give a fillip to the concept of Buddhist Tourism, which has been one of the priorities of the Tourism Department. It is also expected to bring in valuable tourist revenue to Arunachal Pradesh which is a crucial border state with few other revenue sources.