Visit of tourists to ‘Neer Mahal’ blocked by water hyacinths in Rudra Sagar lake

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, May 14, 2024

During the past many years the ‘Neer Mahal’ in the middle of sprawling Rudra Sagar lake has emerged as one of the most attractive tourist spots in the state. The added attracton of tourists is the ‘Sagar Mahal’ tourist lodge on the bank of the lake where tourists can spend a night on week-ends. Even though the Sagar Mahal is now beyond the reach of ordinary tourists because of heavy rent hike by the private party which got it on contract lease from the state government and gives next to nothing in return , tourists from many parts of the state go to visit the ‘Neer Mahal’.

But recently the entire Rudra Sagar lake has got filled up with water hyacinths so heavily that normal boats or even motor boats can not move through the lake to deliver visitors to Neer Mahal. This happens every year but in the current year the situation is so dire that boating in the lake has now completely stopped because of non-clearance of the water hyacinths . Earlier a narrow route used to be made through the water hyacinths for movement of boats by fencing on both sides but this year the entire fencing collapsed because of heavy rain storm on May 4 and no attempt has been made to clear the lake or to create fencing for movement of the boats. Naturally tourists reach the bank of the lake , spend some time there and return home without seeing the ‘Neer Mahal’. The problem has worsened after fresh rain storm on the night of May 10.

The Rudra Sagar Refugee Fishermen Co-operative Society which is in charge of the lake is also helpless as the secretary of the society Parameshwar Das said that the trouble was created by natural phenomenon like rain-storm and they can do nothing about this. However the stoppage in the movement of boat because of hyacinths in the lake continue to deprive both the co-operative society as well as the tourism department of precious revenue. The co-operative society is losing revenue to the tune of Rs 10 thousand a day while the tourism department which is in charge of ‘Neer Mahal’ is losing Rs 6 thousand revenue a day but with almost the entire ministry now campaigning for Loksabha election in West Bengal there is nobody of authority to look into the matter.