Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve - Equitable Tourism Options

2.7 Tourism Impacts
Identification of Major Impacting Factors
The nature and extent of impact of tourism depends on the intensity of
tourism activity as well as the sensitivity of the impacted ecosystems. This
must be ascertained on the basis of the specifics of the ecosystems in
consideration. However, a few general statements may be made regarding
major impacting factors. Most of the studies show that more severe impacts
of tourism on species and ecosystems arise from the infrastructure and
building activity it involves, rather than from the recreational activities
themselves, as in the case of coastal tourism. In contrast, with nature
tourism, which needs relatively little infrastructure, the activities themselves
are more in the foreground of impacts. In places where sites have already
been selected and developed for tourism, many conflicts are unavoidable
and the impacts can only be diffused to a limited degree during the
operational phase.
Draft Wildlife tourism guidelines, 1997 still remain in the drqjiform.
The Drqfi MoEF guidelines on ecotourism need to made into legalzv
e'!forceable guidelines given the push/or ecotourism projects
The aspects that need to be looked into for determining the impacts of
tourism are:
1. Site choice and de ve lopment
2. Location and operation of tourism related infrastructure
3. Visitor activities
4. I ndire ctly induced effects
Tourism related facilities are preferred on attractive landscape sites like
coasts, primarily sandy beaches and dunes, in proximity to lakes and rivers,
and forest areas in the interior, and in the mountains, exposed mountain I hill
tops and slopes. These are often species-rich ecosystems or transitional
zones in between ecosystems, i.e. ecotones. Due to establishment of
tourism related infrastructure and facilities, the species generally found here
are either destroyed or severely affected.
Building materials are often removed from ecosystems for tourism related
constructions, like hotels and roads, in a non-sustainable manner, e.g., as in
the case of extracting the fine sand of beaches, which is used to mix
concrete. This increases the danger of erosion on the beaches, so that in
11 Nilagiris: Fading Glory