JOIN USIll-equipped tourism dept fails to showcase Haveri heritage
Reason: Shortage of staff and poor infrastructure.
The department has not been able to exploit the district’s potential of tourism, 14 years after Haveri was carved out of Dharwad district.
It doesn’t have even a building of its own and functions from the deputy commissioner’s office premises. It has only an in-charge officer and a clerk.
Ill-equipped, the department has not been able to initiate development of the tourist spots across the district.
An almirah, a table and a chair are all that the department has as its paraphernalia.
Assistant director of the tourism department of the Karwar district has been appointed in-charge officer. He visits the department once in three or six months and leaves, unable to do anything.
Cultural heritage
Haveri has a rich natural and cultural heritage. The district that shares the features of both the lavish green Malnad and the plains of dry-land area, is unique for its diverse flora and fauna.
Each of the seven taluks — Hanagal, Shiggaon, Savanur, Haveri, Byadagi, Hirekerur and Ranebennur — has a share of the distinctive features of the district.
Haveri, the district headquarters, is famous for oil, cattle and cotton markets. Heggeri lake in the taluk hosts birds migrating from different countries during winter.
Byadagi is known for its chilli, and Bankapur of Shiggaon has a sanctuary for peacocks, a rare in the State. Rattihalli in Hirekerur taluk has the famous Kadambeshwara temple.
Popular as the thousand-pillar Jain ‘basadi’, Nagareshwara in Bankapur, the 12th-century Purasiddeshwara temple, Galaganatheshwara temple with its unique architecture, Tarakeshwara temple in Hangal, Mukteshwara temple in Chowdadanaiahpura, add to the district’s cultural and historical significance.
Ranebennur houses a blackbuck sanctuary with over 6,000 blackbucks, wolf, wild boar, fox, jackal, mongoose, hare and pangolin.
Kaginele is known for Kanakadasa, the saint-poet of the Bhakti tradition, Abalur for the philosopher-poet Sarvajna and Shariefgiri of Shishuvinala that became famous because of the mystic poet Shishunala Sharief.
Literary heritage
Starting from one of the early Kannada novelists and pioneers of Kannada nationalism, Galaganatha, to the 20th century poet Subbanna Ranganatha Ekkundi, the district has its share of literary heritage.
The government has spent crores of rupees on developing these heritage centres as tourist spots.
A Rock Garden which has been set up to showcase the vivid cultures and traditions of rural areas has recently become a major tourist attraction. Even a handbook on tourist places in the district has been published. But the absence of a full-fledged tourist department has made the facilities inaccessible for tourists. There is not even a signboard or a map to direct the tourists to these destinations.