Agri tourism in Maharashtra

Maharashtra has been bestowed by the abundance of natures beauty. It rests in the lap of western ghat hills, which are very rich in biodiversity and it has also been gifted with the beautiful coast line of the Konkan region. Maharashtra has it all in the form of natures endowment in its Coastline, Rivers, Forts, Waterfalls, Nature Reserves, Mountain Peaks, Mountain Passes, Dams-Reservoirs etc. It also has rich tradition in a way that it has legacy of Saints of bhakti movement, agricultural tradition and rich culinary tradition. There are many pilgrims centre’s in Maharashtra and also present are equally important tourist attractions. There beauty is such that every human will want to live in such serene place. Agri tourism centres are providing this opportunity to the people. Many Agri tourism centres are coming up in places close to metropolises of Pune and Mumbai.  Along with this two major cities, the trend is also picking up in the other important urban centre’s like, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Kolhapur etc. Maharashtra has got very rich historical, cultural, educational, geographical, socio-political and even industrial legacy.

Maharashtra has its own ‘Gods Own Country’, in the form of its beautiful Konkan coastline. It has been gifted with abundance of natures beauty. And it is this beauty which makes Konkan a truly great place. But compared to the scenic places in Konkan, there are very few Agri Tourism centre’s. Agri tourism centre’s have primarily sprung up in Western Maharashtra belt. And that too, Pune region has the highest number of such centre’s. One of the main reason for this is, Pune has large number hills, forts, lakes, rivers, reservoirs etc in its vicinity. The city dwellers have natural attraction and inclination towards Rural life, hence large number of Agri tourism centres have sprung up in the Pune-Mumbai region. Even Vidharbha and Khandesh have many scenic places, so agri tourism trend is picking up in this places too. Marathwada now has near about seventy agri tourism centres. Marathwada is called the the region of (Bhakti) Saints, it has world tourist attractions like, Ajanta and Ellora caves, large dams like Jayakwadi, it also has a Gurudwara in Nanded which has legacy of more than 300 years. And since in the past, Marathwada region was ruled by Nizam, it has many scenic Masjids, Sufi Shrines and forts. Thus Marathwada has great historical tradition.

In all of Maharashtra there are nearly 600 Agri tourism centres and of this 600, nearly 400 to 500 center’s have been registered with the private and cooperative Agri tourism organisations.It is not mandatory to register with the organisations like MART and MTDC,  and even without registration near about 100 agri tourism centre’s are being run professionally. Agri tourism first took roots in Maharashtra, and it was here that first agri tourism centre was opened. In India the highest number of agri tourism centre’s are also in Maharashtra, and they number about 600. And no doubt, this number is going to increase even further in the near future.

Translator 

Sajid Inamdar