A green sight-seeing tour was launched at Tram Chim National Park in Tam Nong district, the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, on August 22.

According to Le Hoang Long, Director of the Tourism and Environmental Education Centre of Tram Chim National Park, it is an eco-friendly tour as visitors will be able to enjoy a ride around the park on an electric car and a solar-powered boat while making no engine noise that can disrupt the wildlife here.

The centre piloted the tour by using four electric cars, which can run at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour, and one 15-kilometres-per-hour solar-powered boat. The boat was created by four local farmers living in Thap Muoi district.

The tour takes the visitors approximately 35 minutes and costs 700,000 VND (about 31 USD) to serve a maximum of 12 people each round. The centre plans to put into use other six solar-powered boats and twelve electric cars in the coming time alongside several extra services to better serve travellers. Established in 1985, the 7,313-hectare Tram Chim became a national park in 1998 and then the fourth Ramsar site in Vietnam. The park’s plentiful green vegetation is inhabited by more than 130 species of higher plants featuring six main types of floristic societies. Water life in the park is also bustling seeing the presence of over 150 species of freshwater fish, with some listed in Vietnam’s Red Book like clown feather-back fish, common archerfish and giant barbs, nearly 180 algae species, 26 epifauna species, 350 species of plankton and 34 species of amphibian. Tram Chim is home to 198 bird species, including 16 rare ones such as red-headed cranes, black-faced spoonbills, black eagles, great-billed herons and spotted-billed pelicans. It was recognised as an important bird sanctuary in Vietnam. The number of fauna and aquatic species in Tram Chim National Park surpass those in other wetland reserves in the region, like Tra Su cajeput forest reserve in An Giang province and U Minh Ha National Park in Ca Mau province. In the dry season, canoes bring tourists to travel along small canals from which they can spot 1.5-metre-tall cranes, herons with wings of over one metre and long-necked darters seeking food.-VNA