PUNE: Shivneri fort, Tamhini sanctuary and Khandoba temple at Jejuri near Pune are among the 320 eco-tourism sites that will be ready with lodging, sanitation, and other facilities by 2022, senior forest department and eco-tourism development officials said on Monday.The facilities will be owned and operated locally with guidelines from the state.At a workshop held on the forest department premises here, self-help groups, NGOs, and tour operators presented plans on owning and operating such facilities. The presentation focused on sites in western Maharashtra — both newly identified and existing ones. The identified sites are forts, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves, religious places and eco-parks.“Our approach is two-fold. We want to protect the eco-system and also want to provide gainful employment to local communities living around those sites. That is why we are emphasising that these facilities be owned by self-help groups and NGOs,” said Sunil Limaye , additional chief conservator of forests (wildlife).Limaye, who also holds charge of managing director of the Maharashtra Eco-Tourism Development Board (MEDB), said that a number of such sites are already being developed.“Around 106 sites are being developed in parts of the state, mainly in eastern Maharashtra. We expect the sites to be up and running in another five years,” he added.The Nashik circle has the highest number of sites identified for development, with 51 chosen across Nashik and Ahmednagar districts. Pune circle, which covers Pune district and parts of Thane and Solapur districts, will have 34 such sites by 2023.To popularise eco-tourism among youngsters, MEDB officials said a pilot scheme in operation in four districts of Vidarbha region, involving children from Zilla Parishad schools and ashram-shalas, will be expanded all across the state. “We piloted a programme called Nisarg Anubhav among students in ZP and resident schools in Chandrapur, Nagpur, Gondia, and Gadchhiroli, where around 2,000 students were taken in batches to experience the eco-system in some of these communities. We now plan to expand it across the state to 80,000 students,” said Kishor Mishrikotkar, divisional forest officer, MEDB.

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