lucknow off the city limits and away from the bustling crowds kukrail picnic spot has turned into a popular hangout for lovebirds though it is one of the four national centres for ghariyal conservation in the country kukrail is known more as a getaway destination for couples than for its educational and research value to break this image the state forest department has decided to start a guided nature tour which will draw visitors including schoolchildren to kukrail the tour will allow the visitors to get a feel of wildlife said conservator endangered species sanjay srivastava they can touch and feel the young ghariyals he said visitors would get to interact with keepers at the centre to know interesting facts about ghariyals bird sighting walking with keepers and going inside kukrail forest is part of the programme said srivastava to begin with schools have been approached to send in students to learn about the centre and programme has been publicized to attract visitors up forest department is being assisted by turtle survival alliance tsa in running the programme we conducted the test run in the last week of december and it clicked with visitors said programme administrator tsa chaitra baliga the tour will be held every sunday the department plans to start the tour from february 23 every year in january threeyear old ghariyals reared in kukrail are released into the wild this year 50 ghariyals were released in hastinapur sanctuary about 70 young ghariyals are still sheltered at the centre along with 100odd adult ghariyals government also plans to develop kukrail as a biodiversity centre the second phase of the programme would focus on developing infrastructure at the place and restoring the existing setup he said kukrail centre was set up in 1978 for conservation of endangered ghariyals the centre is spread over 10 acre area while kukrail forest spans over 5000 hectares