Hundreds belonging to the Jain community held a silent march from Jain Mandir to the Raj Bhawan on Tuesday in Jharkhand’s capital city Ranchi, demanding the withdrawal of the 2019 notification that declared Parasnath Hills, which is home to their biggest pilgrimage centre Sammed Shikharji, as a tourist destination.
Jain community members of all ages joined the protest, with women wearing saffron saree and the men turning up in white carrying placards and banners on their way to the Raj Bhawan.
Sammed Shikharji was recently declared a tourist place by the state government. The centre notified it as an eco-sensitive zone in 2019 on recommendations of the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Jharkhand government.
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“The decision has hurt the sentiments of the Jain community. The sanctity of the religious centre has been hit. People visiting the place have started drinking and eating non-vegetarian food. This is against the tents of our religion,” said a memorandum submitted by the Shri Digambar Jain Panchayat, Ranchi, to governor Ramesh Bais. The memorandum was signed by its president Pawan Chabra.
“We urge the governor to direct the state government to declare Parasanath Hills as a holy religious centre. We request you to direct the state to withdraw the notification declaring it as a tourist place,” the memorandum said.
The genesis of the entire controversy lies in a gazette notification of the state government’s tourism department issued on February 22, 2019, by the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Raghubar Das, designating ‘Parasnath’ as one of the tourist places in the state. Besides Parasnath, dozens of other places in each of the 24 districts of the state were also declared as tourist spots, including places of religious and historical importance.
Later, the centre, on August 2, 2019, on a recommendation by the state government, notified the area around Parasnath sanctuary as an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), which allows conditional development work and eco-tourism in the area.
On July 24, 2022, CM Soren unveiled the state’s tourism policy, which underlined the developing Parasnath as a religious tourist centre along with other religious places, including Baba Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar and Rajrappa Temple in Ramgarh district.
