August 13, 2024
TeraiGoldCup: You all must be following the Olympics in Paris, sports brings people from across the world, a major way for tourism. We at ACT wanted to bring highlight to the Terai region through sports and who could be a better person than our ACT Ambassador, Bhaichung Bhutia ji, the football icon for BBIN countries. Terai was added to our list of Conservation Tourism and TTF, the largest network of Travel Marts in India took forward the lead. We were already working on making destinations more responsible, making them free of Drug addiction and Illicit Trafficking. Bhaichung Bhutia ji readily offered his academy ground and Pushpa Di, the local Panchayat member from Pahargoomiah Tea Estate offered all support. It all began with getting a women's team of young girls of Kamalapur Tea Estate requesting support to make a football team, where sports shoes were distributed by ACT members. This evolved to organize the Terai Gold Cup on 13th August, 2024, two days ahead of Indian Independence Day. 8 Teams from Bahundangi village in the Indo-Nepal border to Ghughudangi village in the Indo-Bangladesh border participated in the tournament. Barefoot players to professional players in boots played their best in the knock-out game. SSB Siliguri Hq sent their National women's team to play the inaugural friendly match. Most participating players were from marginalized tribal communities from this small Mechi to Teesta corridor part of greater Terai landscape. The most happening part of history. The Terai Tourism cooperation has to be initially drawn between the states of Bihar and West Bengal in India and Koshi Province in Nepal. This is the beginning, we launched "Visit Terai" at TTF Kolkata, India, there was an awareness panel in TTF Ahmedabad in India, the #WorldElephantDay celebrations in Bahundangi, Nepal and now the #TeraiGoldCup at Pahargoomiah Tea Estate, India.
