When exploring natural conditions such that travel practices are conducted with a view towards environmental conservation, environmental sustainability and the welfare of local communities. Thenmala in Kerala is India’s first planned and certified ecotourism destination.
Benefits:
- To increase foreign exchange
- tended to increase at a higher rate than merchandise export in a number of countries.
- To help in the development of infrastructure facilities:
- Variety of secondary industries may be promoted
- Indirectly; tourist expenditure may be responsible for stimulating other economic activities of a country.
- To help in balanced regional development:
- To help in generating employment:
- highly labour intensive service industry that generates employment for highly skilled, semiskilled and unskilled labour in sectors like hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tourism offices, shops etc.
- To help in maintaining peace and understanding:
- Promoting international peace.
- Creates awareness and appreciation of other countries culture and nature.
Risks:
- Ecotourism that is not properly implemented in a learned manner can thus fall prey to commercialization, and more often than that commercial interests can overrun the pedagogy of policy on the ground level.
- It is the major threat to the rich biodiversity and natural habitats of the wilds in the jungles.
- Eco tourism tends to conserve the environment at the expanse of the development prospects for the third world communities.
- Located in the eco systems, eco-tourism projects it is the biggest obstacle in the way of the development of the environment.
- Competition for eco-tourism income between the various groups leads to social disharmony.
- To cater to the increasing demand for eco-tourism, land around parks and sanctuaries is being cleared through deforestation, displacement of people etc. to accommodate hotels, resorts etc.
- Increased use of resources by the human population, even in the smallest sense cause problem to the environment.
- Another major threat to the environment is the production waste and effluent pollution as well as increasing human activities like logging, and agricultural clearance.
- No viable long-lasting employment opportunities with scope for growth are provided to the locals.
Conclusion:
India is one of the 12-mega bio-diverse countries of the world and has a rich cultural heritage too. It has a vast potential for ecotourism that needs to be tapped for healthy conservation and preservation of nature and bringing about economic benefits to the local communities.
Plastic waste management
Case Studies:
- NGT fines Delhi Government ( Rs. 25 crores ) for plastic farms in the outskirts of the city. Repeated plastic fires out broke contaminating the atmosphere.
- Solution : These workers should be adequately skilled in training institutes and then employed.
UPSC CSE Notes 