The World Tourism Day is celebrated annually on September 27. Its purpose is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value.
The event seeks to address the global challenges outlined in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and highlight the tourism sector’s contribution in reaching these goals. In support of United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation, the World Tourism Day (WTD) 2013 is being held under the theme Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future. This year’s theme focuses on tourism’s significant role and contribution to worldwide water conservation efforts and provides an opportunity to further highlight the shared responsibility of the tourism sector to the wider sustainability objectives while creating benefits for local populations around the water tourism sector.
India by virtue of its extensive geographical extent, varied terrain and climatic conditions support and sustain diverse and unique wetland habitats. According to a Space Application Centre (SAC) report, 7.58 million hectare wetlands are in India which includes 3.56 million ha of freshwater wetlands. Odisha has 16277.5 ha of inland wetland and 185431.75 ha of coastal wetland. The rapidly growing human populations, large-scale changes in land use/land cover and the improper use of watersheds have caused a substantial decline in wetland resources of the country.
The geographical diversity of India makes it home to a wealth of ecosystems which are well-protected and preserved. These ecosystems have become the major resources for ecotourism. Ecotourism is sustainable tourism, which is based on the ecological principle and sustainable development theory. Ecotourism involves local community for conservation of the areas’ ecology; and biodiversity, in its return, provides economic incentives to the community.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC ) has recently notified India as one of the fastest-growing tourism economies in the world. In May 2002, the Department of Tourism, Government of India, formulated a new National Tourism Policy emphasising on development and promotion of Indian tourism to harness its economic benefits to a large segment of its population.
Odisha with its bounties of nature and scenic natural beauty has immense potential to occupy a place of pride in the ecotourism map of the country. Ecotourism offers an opportunity to showcase the State’s unique natural heritage to visitors while enhancing the livelihood options for the local people. The State is rich with important water resources. The very famous natural heritage site Ansupa lake in Cuttack district holds a prominent position in the tourist map of Odisha for its picturesque landscape. The lake is the largest and very old freshwater lake. The water spread area is around 2.12 sqkm. The length of the lake is around 3 km and its average width is around 1.3 km. The lake is directly linked with river Mahanadi by a channel, Kabula Nala, through which floodwater of the Mahanadi enters the lake. The main attraction of the lake is its natural beauty. Besides, more than 30,000 people living in the peripheral villages depend very much on the lake resources, mainly fishery, for their livelihoods.
Ansupa is of national importance due to its unique biodiversity character having varied aquatic fauna and flora and is a famous natural heritage. It is bounded by the Saranda hills on the western side and the Bishnupur hills on its northern side. The lake has assumed international importance as it is home to several species of migratory birds from far-off Siberia, Europe, etc, in winter as well as domiciled birds.
The very old Saranda Fort, built during the Keshari dynasty, is situated near the lake. Now, the Saranda hill has turned bald due to tree felling. The lake is fast buried with soil erosion form the hill. For income-generating activities, i.e., cultivation and fishery, the people depend upon the lake resources. Due to environmental degradations like siltation, both fisherman and cultivators are facing a lot of problems. There is also no proper irrigation system like canals, for which the people find difficulty in cultivation. The lake is degrading very fast threatening the ecosystem, as a result of which the fishery and tourism potentials are adversely affected.
The Ansupa lake is declared a Community Reserve according to an amendment made in the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) in 2003. Realising the importance of tourism potential and conservation of the lake, the State Government has been working towards an integrated economic, social, and conservation development plan for the lake over the past decade.
The Government has initiated an integrated Sustainable Environmental Management Programme like catchment area treatment, including soil conservation measures with plantations to arrest siltation and eutrophication, weed management activities and constant environmental monitoring to assess the progress of the work.
As per the Draft Guidelines published by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2011, the State Governments are to develop a State-level ecotourism strategy. The Odisha Ecotourism Development Board is proposed to be the apex body in the State engaged in promotion of ecotourism and development of requisite systems and standards for the same. The tourism industry, besides generating more employment opportunities provides incentives to foster the quality of environment. The travel and tourism sector contributes to the national integration, preserves natural and cultural environments as well as enriches social and cultural lives of people.
The Odisha Government in its tourism policy has prioritised development of ecotourism to attract Indian and foreign tourists. In 2009-10, a new scheme was introduced for ecotourism development in the Ansupa lake. The Departments of Tourism in the States are responsible for implementation of the tourism projects funded by the Union Ministry of Tourism and the projects identified by them under their respective State tourism policies.
Ansupa should be conserved in an integrated manner which should be implemented with community mobilisation and participation for sustainability so that the lake would not only attract both national and international tourists but be conserved well for the posterity. For this, harmony between development of tourism destination and environment improvement in cities is extremely essential.
There is a need to prepare a Tourism Perspective Plan for development of basic infrastructure and creation of tourism circuits. The plan should focus on sustainable tourism development which is environment-friendly and tourist-friendly. An environment planning approach is essential for sustainable development of tourism. This implies that all the aspects of environment should be carefully studied and analysed while proposing development at sensitive tourist destinations. Thus, it calls for a separate cell whereby all monitoring activities related to the environment can be carried out.
For ecotourism planning and sustainable community development, there is a need to increase ecotourism awareness, capacity building for ecotourism for the local community and community participation for development of ecotourism in our State. Besides, a proper implementation of a Tourism Perspective Plan is necessary for development of ecotourism of Ansupa. This is possible only when people actively participate in the actual implementation of the plan.(Dr Mayarani Praharaj works in the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)
