Tourism Potentiality in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam: An Analysis

Abstract

North East of India, popularly known as N.E., comprises of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim and geographically situated in the North East corner of India with an area of 25.5 million Sq. Km (7.8% of the land mass of the country). N.E. shares the International boundaries of India with China to the North, Bangladesh to the South-West, Bhutan and Nepal to the North-West and Myanmar to the East. It has from time immemorial been the meeting ground of diverse ethnic and cultural streams. Through the long columns of history, people of different races and ethnology have migrated into this land and merged into a common harmonious whole in a rare process of fraternization and assimilation. Tourism in Assam is essentially nature based; therefore, national parks, wild life sanctuaries, rivers, lakes, hot water springs and thick wooded forest and wildlife are the major components of tourist attractions in Assam. Tinsukia is one of the twenty seven administrative districts in the state of Assam. The district occupies an area of 3790 km² and has a population of 1,316,948 (as of 2011 Census) of which males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. The Tourism potentiality of the Tinsukia district of Assam is immense with a combination of human, natural, cultural, ethnic beauty, religious attractions, heritage sites and deep forests. Most foreign travelers look for ethnic and culture mosaic, adventure and Tourism while a domestic tourist is enthused by religious attractions, wildlife and flora and fauna. In all these areas the Dehing Patkai Region of the Tinsukia District of Assam has tremendous scope for attraction. The lush green valleys and scenic splendour of this area covering the geographical areas of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts and South-Eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh, cast spell on visitors. The lush green rain forest patch of Joypur, Dirok and Upper Dehing locations are ideal for a wide variety of flora and fauna as also for trekking. Thus the whole region of the Tinsukia District of Assam has tremendous potentiality for furthering Tourism development. Hence the area also has tremendous scope for entrepreneurship development. The paper intends to highlight the potentiality of tourism development in the Tinsukia district of upper Assam with that of its infrastructure planning.