By IANS
Agartala : Environmentalists in Tripura Saturday urged the government to preserve and protect eastern India's lone water palace from encroachers.
"We have urged the chief minister to personally intervene and take suitable action to protect the heritage of the state," said Arun Nath, covenor of the Mukta Manch (Open Forum).
The forum of environmentalists, intellectuals and academics demanded a 'white paper' from the government on the status of the Rudra Sagar and Neermahal, the second of its kind in India after the lake palace in Rajasthan's Udaipur.
Then king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur built the magnificent water palace Neermahal in 1930 in the midst of Rudrasagar as his summer residence.
The union forest and environment ministry has earlier declared the 'Rudrasagar' a national lake.
"Half of the Rudrasagar has been encroached by farmers and other people," said Jiten Paul, a resident. "Two brick kilns and paddy fields have sprung up in the Rudrasagar area."
A blend of Hindu-Muslim architecture and about 400 metre in length, the royalty's summer resort has 24 rooms with provisions for private quarters for the king and his family and retinue of servants.
"The central government has sanctioned Rs.1.6 million for afforestation around the Rudrasagar area, but the forest department diverted the money," Nath alleged.
The Neermahal and Rudrasagar is one of Tripura's favourite tourist destinations, 55 km west of here.