Ithkori brings Chatra on tourism map

CHATRA: Infamous for Maoist activities in the past, Chatra has now earned the distinction of being the religious tourism destination of the country. More than two lakh people from three different communities — Hindu, Buddhist and Jain — arrived at Bhadrakali temple in Itkhori during the three-day Itkhori festival, which concluded on Saturday.
It also prompted the authorities to make a series of announcements.While chief minister Raghubar Das announced to give Itkhori the status of state festival and develop 25 sq km region surrounding the temple as a tourist destination, Vinoba Bhave University (VBU) has proposed to set up an interdisciplinary research wing of different faculties.
R P Singh, director mission of the state skill upgradation council, assured to start A skill development centre in Itkhori so that trained manpower is available to handle tourists, expected to come from India and abroad as well.
The representatives of the Jain community expressed their willingness to set up a Jain temple and vocational training centre if they were provided with land on the temple premises. Attending a panel discussion on the prospects of archaeology and tourism in Itkhori, retired official with Archeological Survey of India, Ranchi circle, N G Nikoshey, said there was an urgent need to conserve the stupas, idols and artefacts obtained from excavation.
“ASI carried out an excavation of the site in 2011-12 and 2012-13 from which whatever was obtained has been kept with the ASI Ranchi centre. But local people have preserved a lot of things, which should be placed in a proper museum with detailing. Once the museum comes up, the material with ASI can also be sent on the 0direction of the director general,” he said.
Amateur megalith expert Subhasis Das spoke about the relevance of megaliths in world tourism. “The entire Hazaribag and Chatra region is lined with megalith sites, which is quite common to tourist sites in Korea and England . Accordingly, they can be developed here,” he said requesting the people not to take away the stone megaliths as slabs.
Local MP Sunil Singh, who played a key role in organizing the mahotsav, said that the governments at the Centre and state have now decided to give Itkhori its due importance in tourism . “Apart from tourist perspective, we want to make it a place of academic research in history, archeology and sociology so that the co-existence of three major religions since the time of Pal dynasty of 9th century AD is explained,” he said.