Pangsau Pass Winter Ferstival, 2007

The Arunachal Times reports: -

"In his inuagural address (Siang River Festival) as the chief guest, Sena said that tourism would be the biggest industry from 2010 onwards in Arunachal."

Juxtaposing ‘Siang River Festival 2007’, ‘Pangsau Pass Winter Ferstival, 2007’ and the governments claim about tourism in the state, I find it too tall a claim to digest. Where Siang River Festival 2007 is being splashed all over the local dailies, I failed to notice any dailies that mention anything about the Pangsau Pass Winter Festival 2007 which is going to be held from 20^th to 22^nd of this month at Nampong to showcase about the Tangsa’s of Arunachal Pradesh. I came to know about this Festival not from any local dailies, not from the Government sites but through Arif Siddiqui who wrote in via e-mail.

“Pangsau Pass Winter Festival 2007 is going to be held on 20 Jan'07 to 22 Jan'07 at Nampong to boast eco-tourism and enhance cross border affinity with Myanmar. The Pangsau Pass Winter Festival is dedicated to showcase the distinctive cultures, strange customs, elegant traditional dresses, magnificent folk dances, haunting melodies, delicious cuisines of the Tangsa’s, to uncover the historical WW II cemetery, to explore the mysterious Lake of No Return, to admire the glimpses of the rare flora and faunas of this province, above all to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Tangsa People. It's an imperative and diminutive effort to boost eco-tourism in this region. More details of festival are here.”

The request to include the information about this winter festival in the government website by Arif, fell on deaf ears, which has made me wonder, if at all government is serious about projecting this state as a global tourism hot-spot.