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.
