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Wildlife Tourism For Conservation

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October 29, 2017

What is the issue?

  • Wildlife tourism has been slowly gaining ground in India as an effective tool for conservation.
  • It has also increased government revenue and aided local communities earn a livelihood.

How has wildlife tourism helped local communities?

  • Wildlife tourism is currently focused on a few protected areas and these areas are running at maximum capacity.
  • Local populations being the largest beneficiary, wildlife tourism can potentially bring development to remotest areas.
  • 75crore or 45% of the 166crore generated through wildlife tourism was found to go back to communities.
  • Additionally, better road connectivity and other physical infrastructures such as electricity, health, education etc... sprout with development of tourism.
  • Notably, villages focused on tourism had better income, health and education levels than the rest.  

How has it benefited conservation efforts?

  • The dependency of the locals on the forests was found to be significantly reduce with tourism due to other sources of revenue.
  • Furthermore, their attitude towards wildlife conservation improved which is a win-win for conservation efforts.
  • In the Tiger Reserves that were surveyed, the total revenue generated from entry fees alone was over Rs 19 crore annually.
  • This was almost on par with the individual contributions of the state and central governments.

What is the best way forward?

  • Exclusionary models of conservation is not feasible over a larger landscape outside the small isolated pockets.
  • To take tiger conservation beyond the protected areas, we need to look at new, parallel and complementary models for conservation.
  • Seeing ‘nature tourism’ as an effective solution rather than  a threat makes prudent sense in this regard.
  • Improving ‘program planning and waste disposal’ at tourism sites could potentially enhance benefits.
  • While ecological damage due to tourism aided real-estate ventures is indeed a risk, strict vigil could keep it in check.
  • Notably, the footprint of eco-tourism is much lighter than other developmental initiatives.

 

Source: Business Standard

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