With an aim to boost Nepal's spoiling image in the international tourism and travel sector and explore the ways to ensure the sustainable development in the area, Manang Youth Society (MYS) is to celebrate year 2004 as a Manang Destination 2004. At a press meet recently organised jointly by MYS and Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA), it was informed that the campaign would showcase the best and most beautiful parts of Nepal's remote and northernmost districts. Speaking on the occasion, tourism professionals said that Destination Manang 2004 will help boost district's tourism sector in particular and country's tourism in general. They said that the campaign would create and promote Manang as a tourist destination, which has tremendous potentialities given its natural beauty. They added that the district's natural, religious, and cultural treasures are also attractions..

Tripple P Gurung, president of MYS, said that the campaign would help increase the number of tourists not only in the district but also in the whole country. "The campaign will revive cultural festivals like Badhe, which is celebrated once every three years and also promote other less identified tourist destinations of the district." Expressing commitment to help the campaign, Tek Bahadur Dangi, Executive Director of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), said that the NTB would prominently help to make the campaign a success and work in partnership and collaboration. "We have taken such a youth-driven initiative very positively and are ready to help in all aspects." Similarly, Gehendra Gurung, Director of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), said that the campaign would help in the conservation of various natural treasuries of Manang as well. Shankar Prasad Koirala, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Cultural and Civil Aviation, said that the freeing of Nar and Phu, the two northernmost tourist destinations of the Manang district bordering Tibet, last year from restriction is in itself a gesture from the government's part to promote tourism.

OTHER NEWS

• Pollution level remains within respirable limit in Valley: The stretching monsoon continues to add blessing even this week to the denizens of the Kathmandu Valley, who have experienced alarming pollution on dry days, as the level of pollution in the city remained within respirable limit set by the government. Thanks to the stretching rains. The air quality results monitored by six air quality monitoring stations in the valley over the week (July 6-12) show that the level of particulate matter (PM)10, a major solid pollutant in the air of the valley, was tolerable to human health at Thamel, Kirtipur, Matsyagaon and Bhaktapur. However, the stations at Patan and Putalisadak showed that the level of PM10 crossed the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The NAAQS for PM10 is 120 microgram per cubic meter. Anything exceeding this standard means hazards to human health.
  
  
• 'ournepal.com' to organise IT fair: With an aim to promote the development of the information technology (IT) sector in the country, 'ournepal.com' today announced the organisation of a two-day IT fair and a 'web-page designing contest' for all IT intellects. Organising a press conference in the capital recently, the organisers of the IT fair and the open web-page designing competition informed that the two IT events would be followed by a yearlong musical competition - Beat Master 2003.
  
  
• Crown Prince inaugurates Basantapur fest: On the occasion of the 57th auspicious birthday of His Majesty the King, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev inaugurated the New Road- Basantpur Festival - 2003. HRH the Crown Prince made an inspection of the festival and handed over the Nepalese flag to the marathon runners organised by Pako Youth Club. The day-long festival will feature the folk dance, song, culture of the country, handicrafts and food festival and child entertainment programmes.
  
• Polluted air, unhygienic living condition cause cancer: About 120 persons out of 100,000 are suffering from cancer and the total number of cancer patients at present is 40,000 in Nepal, reveals a statistics made public here recently. Although more than a dozen types of cancer including brain, blood, skin and breast have been identified, the majority patients in Nepal are suffering from lung cancer. Generally, smoking, alcoholism, polluted air, unhygienic living condition and chronic tuberculosis are the main causes of cancer. Appearance of knots and protruded structures on body organs, unusual growth of certain body part, taking long time for recovery of wounds, bleeding from the breast nipples, swollen muscle, loss in weight, lack of appetite, difficulty in swallowing food etc are the main symptoms of cancer.
  
  
  

By Hari Shrestha, Resident Representative in Kathmandu