MillenniumPost
Opinion

Tapping into ecotourism

Through a business-oriented approach, India can utilise the rich potential it has in ecotourism — earning revenue and protecting environment at the same time

Tapping into ecotourism
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The Indian landscape is endowed with diversified scenic beauty, having unmatched natural features ranging from hot desert to cold regions, verdant tropical and temperate forests to sea beaches, glaciers etc. — all rich in flora and fauna. In modern lifestyle, relaxation in the midst of scenic landscapes is every global citizen's dream. Many European countries with historical monuments and distinct geographical features have exploited the business potentials of their landscape and made tourism a major source of their revenue. More than 10 per cent of the world's GDP and seven per cent of the world's total exports come from tourism. The industry is worth over USD 1.1 trillion. The money earned from expenditures by foreigners is a key driver of economic development, and an important source of earning foreign exchange. In 2018, France led the world with 89.4 million tourists' footfalls, followed by Spain and the USA. Among Asian countries, Thailand had 38.2 million footfalls. India had in 2018 received a little more than 17 million tourists with an annual growth rate of about five per cent and is poised to leapfrog. However, tourism has a negative streak of damaging the environment and polluting land and water resources. Owing to climatic vagaries being noticed all over the world there has been greater emphasis on promoting ecotourism.

Ecotourism is responsible tourism and is in tune with the ethos of living in harmony with nature. It is, therefore, based on learning and enjoying the varied components of the ecosystem and promoting the pristine environmental attributes of an area. Ecotourism is deeply entrenched with local culture and is a great source of community livelihood. It is a win-win situation for the tourists as well as for the local people and the environment. The global ecotourism market was valued at USD 181 billion in 2019 and is likely to grow to USD 350 billion in 2027. The question that resource managers are asking is whether India is prepared to give a big lift to ecotourism, not merely on policy front but also in terms of concrete results in terms of revenue generated, conservation of forests and livelihoods created. It creates employment and jobs but not at the cost of the environment. With the rise in India's middle class, the potential of earning from ecotourism is huge, provided well-thought-out planning is done for creating the required infrastructure.

Around 24 per cent of our landmass is under forest and tree cover, out of which, around 4.8 million ha is covered by 103 national parks and 544 wildlife sanctuaries. We have innumerable scenic spots integrated in the overall landscape of the country. In order to exploit the multifaceted potential of ecotourism, it is essential to make it a key feature of forest conservation strategy. Let us examine some of these aspects in relation to some of the states that have great potential to set an example.

In terms of ecotourism, Madhya Pradesh and some other tiger states are noticed frequently by people in national media but some of the best features in north-eastern states like Tripura have remained neglected and underexploited. The Indian landscape has to offer much more than tigers and elephants. In Tripura, the Clouded Leopard National Park, Bison National Park, Rubber Estates, Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary, Elephant Reserve, Hornbill Conservation Reserve — combined with scenic undulating geography and other cultural features like Ujjayanta Palace (an Indo-Saracenic structure made in 1901), Unakoti rock temple and Chabimura rock carvings — are an ideal place to enjoy the serenity of the environment. Chabimura is famous for its panels of rock carvings on the steep mountain wall on the bank of Gomati. These are 15th- and 16th-century carvings. The home to the largest Bas relief sculptures in India, Unakoti is famous for its massive stone and rock-cut sculptures dedicated to Lord Shiva that have been carved out from the hillside during 11th century. The Heritage Park in Agartala is of recent making and it depicts the geographic features of Tripura. There are several beautiful parks with water bodies all over Tripura which can be developed as ecotourism destinations. The bamboo and wooden handicrafts of Tripura are very popular outside the state. The tourist flow in Tripura has been picking up slowly. During 2018-19, total 5,29,879 tourists visited Tripura including 1,12,955 foreign tourists. However, though the footfall has been increasing steadily over the last three years it is nowhere near its vast untapped economic and ecological potential.

The state is one of the first in the country to have announced an ecotourism policy in the year 2004 but nothing substantial was done thereafter to promote ecotourism in terms of infrastructure. Now with excellent physical infrastructure in place — like an International swanky airport, good railway connections and better roads — the state's tourism potential has received a big boost. For the last few years, Agartala has emerged as one of the fastest developing capitals in the north-eastern part of the country. Now the time is ripe for the state government to issue detailed guidelines for ecotourism activities inside and outside the forest areas and to create an independent body to manage ecotourism in the state, integrating the concept with local livelihood, conservation and culture. The Joint Forest Management (JFM) has been quite successful in Tripura and elsewhere in the country in promoting forest-based livelihoods; the government must empower these JFM committees to oversee ecotourism and make people real stakeholders. There are 18 tribes in the state, their food items and culture should be part of any tourist resorts and destinations. For achieving success, the local people, especially women, should be trained in handling tourists, preparing hygienic food, and maintaining sanitation all around because it is the basic features like clean drinking water, clean toilets and beds that attract people to a destination. A well-planned ecotourism shall also garner revenue for the government, and it is necessary that business sense is enthused in our national forest conservation programmes and policies, for which the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change must act in a proactive manner.

The writer is Chairman of the Centre for Resource Management and Environment. Views expressed are personal

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