Bhubaneswar, April 22: City residents, especially children and youth, will have more fun now during weekends with adventure sports facilities, coupled with wildlife potential, coming as a collage near the entrance to the Chandaka Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary on the city outskirts.

Rock climbing, wall climbing, zummaring, rappelling and net-walk are the new additions at Godibari, the entry point to the sanctuary. The adventure sports facilities also come with knowledge-based centres such as eco-theatre and interpretation centre, medicinal, fodder, wild plants and wild berries garden with information board regarding the scientific and local names.

Not only zummaring and rappelling (climbing trees and rocks through ropes), but wall climbing is also introduced for the first time in the city. Godibari is 15km from Bhubaneswar on Pitapali-Chandaka Road.

“The entire entry point to the sanctuary is not only renovated, but also added the eco-theatre with nearly 100 short films on nature and wildlife, herbarium on the plant species available inside Chandaka, two nature trails named Macha ranka and Sal. While the Macha ranka trails is exclusively developed to showcase the water-based birds and animals, the Sal trail is to showcase the terrestrial habitat and, if possible, the animal-plant relationship,” said divisional forest officer Akshaya Patnaik.

A senior forest official said that for kids, there were many play equipment and rides. Moreover, the place also houses many photogenic and beautiful models. A souvenir hall sells the wildlife related products, especially with elephant motifs as the animal is the flagship species of the sanctuary.

Patnaik said the spot was home to three rooms priced between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 to facilitate the tourists’ overnight stay. All the rooms were air-conditioned and meals can be arranged with the help of the eco-development committees of the nearby villages. The committees would manage the adventure sports.

The place has lot more to offer to the nature enthusiasts. The eco-theatre plans to organised quizzes for the visitors to know their interests for plants, animals and wildlife. Besides, a wall-mounted puzzle tests the expertise of the visitor to identify timbers from their texture and colour. While the timber pieces are numbered, another adjoining board displays the name of the plant.

Environment activist Prasad Dash said the knowledge-based additions in Godibari should be replicated at other eco-tourism sites under development process by the forests and environment department.

Everest climber Ganesh Jena is happy to see the rock climbing facilities at Godibari. “This facility will encourage people to take up adventure sports in a greater scale. This also gradually put the sanctuary on the map of major tourist destinations and it can grow to become another major tourist attraction.”

Urban management practitioner Piyush Ranjan Rout said: “With the city to grow now on the Pitapalli-Chandaka corridor and the reality boom around Jatni and Khurda, Godibari gate and the Chandaka sanctuary has a great potential to grow in future.”