Some Tourist Destinations under SER Jurisdiction
DIGHA
#Digha is West Bengal’s most popular sea resort. Originally known as Beerkul, it is mentioned as the “Brighton of the East” in one of Warren Hasting’s letters (1780 AD) to his wife. In 1923, an English tourist John Frank Smith was charmed by the beauty of Digha and started living here. His writings about Digha slowly gave exposure to this place. After independence, he convinced West Bengal’s chief minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy to develop Digha as a beach resort.
A small town, Digha is crowded with hotels generally around one main road. Its proximity to Calcutta (187 km) attracts tourists throughout the year. Digha is a hard beach where one can drive during low tide. The beach is however facing the problem of sea-erosion.
Bathing is advisable only during the low tide. One can view both sunrise and sunset at Digha sea beach. Digha is one of the most popular tourist sports in West Bengal.
The sea at Digha is calm and shallow for about a mile from the beach making it quite safe for swimming.
The seven km long flat, hard beach, dotted with casuarina plantations, is close to the border with Orissa and a 4 hour journey by train from Kolkata. Here the river Hooghly becomes indistinguishable from the Bay of Bengal.
BISHNUPUR
Location: 201 km from Kolkata.
Main Attraction: #Bishnupur is a town and a municipality in Bankura District in the state of West Bengal. It is famous for its terracotta temples and the Balucheri sarees. It is famous for its renowned architecture. Tourists visit these places and relish the fine art of ancient times. It represents nearly all varieties of structural forms of medieval ‘Bengali Temple’ architecture and has beautiful carvings on their walls offering a glitter of the terra-cotta art of Bengal. The temples like “SHYAM RAI TEMPLE” built in the massive ‘PANCHARATNA’ style is regarded as the most outstanding architecture.
#Bishnupur is also famous for silk weaving and its centres developed by “khadiudyog”. “BaluchariSarees” are famous world over in which weavers are projecting themes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana on ‘Pallu’ as well as ‘borders’.
BALASORE
Simlipal Reserve Forest: Covering a vast area of 2750 sq. km out of which 303 sq. km form the core area, this biosphere reserve is a sanctuary and one of the Tiger Projects and National Parks of India. With wide range of rainfalls and moist green forests, it is suitable to different species of flora and fauna. About 1076 species of plants, 87 varieties of orchids, 42 species of mammals, 29 types of reptiles and 231 species of birds are the inhabitants of this forest.
Several rivers originate from the hills and meander through the forest. #Pithabata is an entry point which is situated 22 Km from #Baripada in #Orissa.
MUKUTMANIPUR
Location: 55 kilometers from Bankura Railway Station.
Main Attraction: #Mukutmanipur literally is a pearl in the crown of the entire #Bankura District, especially south Bankura. This very place has rose to prominence due to its serene beauty. One of the biggest earthen dams in Asia, it stretches approximately up to 11 km. It is famous for confluence of Cossey and Kumari rivers. It is full of natural surroundings and has the largest dam of Bankura District. There is vast natural forest near dam.
The place is replete with attractive picnic spots. The place has been aptly described as nestling on the wooded dam-sites of the two rivers Kangsabati and Kumari. A couple of spots as Musafirana, Pareshnath hillock are worth mentioning. The newly developed Musafirana is a fantastic viewpoint of the entire dam which is the ambit of tourist attraction.