Ecotourism for Eco Friendly Guest and Green Host - A Case Study on Thenmala Ecotourism Project, Kerala

Abstract

Ecotourism is a purposeful travel to understand the nature and culture of a particular area taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make conservation of natural resources beneficial to the local people. Protected Areas such as national Parks, Biosphere Reserves and Wild Life Sanctuaries have figured prominently in biodiversity conservation and well-designed and managed Protected Areas can form the pinnacle of nation's efforts to protect biological diversity and also provide opportunities for recreation and tourism. Scientific studies show that planning ecotourism in Protected Areas as done in Thenmala ecotourism project, Kerala, first planned ecotourism project in India, which can be a model for other such destination development programmes. In Protected areas, developing forests as recreation spots can mitigate hardships of indigenous communities. This will provide monetary returns to the

public exchequer, while protecting bio diverse patches with the support of the local community. For better planning and implementation of different components of ecotourism, zonalisation, site-specific action plan, reliable estimates of carrying. capacity and Environment Impact Assessment may be done in all the Protected Areas so as to avoid the ill effects of tourism. This research paper analyses and evaluates the methodology and typology of ecotourism practices at Thenmala, Kerala and proposing Thenmala as a model for the development of similar program in India