Sand Artist bags National Award

New Delhi, Jan 28 (UNI) Orissa, the 'Eden of East', for the first time bagged three trophies at the National Tourism Awards ceremony held here on the National Tourism Day.

Kerala, God's own country, is the only state which cornered more awards than Orissa.

International Sand Artist Sudarsan Pattnaik got 'Most Innovative Tourism Project award', famed Raghurajpur for 'Best Rural Tourism Porject'(joint winner)and Department of Tourism of Orissa for 'Excellence in Publication'(English) Special Award from Union Minister of Tourism Ambika Soni in a ceremony held on Thursday night.

When Kerala Tourism Minister flew down to the Capital to receive the awards, Orissa sent its Tourism Secretary Parag Gupta to represent the state at the glittering function attended by a large number of representatives from Tourism and Trade sectors from India and abroad.

Mr Gupta received the two trophies-the statue of an elephant, the symbol of the Tourism Ministry, and vanished before the Minister could start her speech enumerating the plans and future of tourism in India.

Mr Gupta did not attend the tea after the ceremony where everybody mingled with the Minister, the bureaucrats, travel agents, hoteliers, journalists to market their state, hotel, agency and projects.

When Mr Gupta was leaving the auditorium with two elephant statues in his two hands at the famed Ashoka Hotel, a travel trade representative commented, ''Did Orissa deserve three awards?'' Mr Gupta even refused to sit in the row with the awardees.

Pattnaik received the award for successfully projecting and marketing India as a destination through sand sculptures during his participation at National and 31 International Championships such as World Travel Mart-1998, World Cup Cricket and World Cup Football- 2006 in UK and Germany respectively, Asian Games 2006 in UAE.

The souvenir released by the Tourism Ministry at the time of the ceremony said, ''Pattnaik successfully projected the world heritage sites such as Taj Mahal and highlighted the culture of the country through the unusual art form which drew a large number of people to visit India.'' After the ceremony, Pattnaik said he was planning to setup at Gurukul at Puri to teach sand art to foreigners and tourists from all over the world. Thousands of traditional sculptures and monuments will be made there on sand to attract tourists, he added.

UNI