Tourism will not take place on Shri Sammed Shikhar, which is a prominent pilgrimage site for the Jain community. On Thursday, the Union Environment Ministry took back its decision from 2019, and has restricted tourism in the region with immediate effect. This region is an eco-sensitive zone, and that is why, the Centre itself issues the permission for any kind of activity taking place here.
On Thursday morning itself, the Jharkhand government had written a letter to the Centre, stating that the eco-tourism notification should be rolled back, without which the state government would not have been able to remove the Parasnath mountain from the list of tourist spots. After this, the Union Environment Ministry wrote to the Jharkhand government and said that tourism in the Parasnath mountain area should be stopped with immediate effect. The Centre has also formed a committee, which will keep a check.
The committee will have two permanent members from the Jain community and one from the local tribal community. Union Environment Minister, Bhupendra Yadav, on Wednesday, had met with the representatives of the Jain community. The ministry has issued the order restricting the tourism activities on the directions of PM Narendra Modi.
On the other hand, the Jharkhand CMO said that their letter created an impact, and that was why the Centre took back its decision of turning Parasnath mountain into a tourist spot.
Expressing elation on the government’s decision, Munishri 108 Pramaan Sagar Ji Maharaj called this the victory of the community, and claimed that the state government too has ensured that it will remain as a religious site and will not be converted into a tourist spot. Thanking the central and the state governments, he appealed to the members of the Jain community that the movement should now be ended.
While the central government has accepted the demand of the Jain community, the Santhal tribe living around this mountain is asking the government to remove the Jain community from this site, because this mountain, for centuries, has been their deity ‘Marang Buru’, and has been the centre of their faith. They have added that people from the outside have settled here and have encroached the place and that they will make sure that the place is emptied.
