Eco-Tourism

Paper VI, Second Year

MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY

MA Tourism Management 6018

PTMT06

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Contents Unit-1 ................................................................................................................................................1

1. What do you understand by the following terms? .....................................................................1

a. What is Ecology?......................................................................................................................1

b. What is an Ecosystem?.............................................................................................................1

c. What Is the Environment? ........................................................................................................1

2. Discuss the importance of habitat diversity and biodiversity from tourism point of view..............2

3. Discuss the importance of carrying capacity and absorbing capacity from tourism point of view. .3

4. Write short notes on ................................................................................................................5

a. Properties of Ecosystems .........................................................................................................5

b. Ecosystems processes, goods and services ................................................................................5

5. State the five basic laws of Ecology. In what ways these laws are related to /affected your life

style and your immediate surroundings? Discuss with examples from tourism................................6

Unit 2.................................................................................................................................................8

1. Discuss the conditions under which tourism is causing negative impacts in India. What are your

suggestions for reducing them? ...................................................................................................8

2. What are the impacts of tourism activities on water resources? How the negative impacts can be

controlled? .................................................................................................................................9

3. Discuss how various tourism activities either directly or indirectly cause air pollution. Describe

their impacts and control measures............................................................................................ 10

4. List the sources and types of solid wastes generated by various tourism activities. What are the

impacts? How would you manage solid wastes?.......................................................................... 14

5. Define noise pollution. Describe the causes and impacts of noise pollution. .............................. 19

6. List 10 major ways to conserve water on a personal level. Which, if any, of these practices do you

now use or intend to use?.......................................................................................................... 23

Unit 3............................................................................................................................................... 25

1. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 25

a) Acid rain................................................................................................................................ 25

b) Ozone depletion .................................................................................................................... 25

2. In what ways’ tourism activities can be linked to global environmental problems? Discuss with

suitable examples along with remedial measures ........................................................................ 26

3. Give an account of Indian monsoons. Describe the monsoon tourism in India. .......................... 27

4. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 30

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a) Natural hazards ..................................................................................................................... 30

b) Globalization and Tourism...................................................................................................... 31

5. Describe the most serious manmade hazards in India. In what ways they influence /are

influenced by the tourism activities. ........................................................................................... 31

Unit 4............................................................................................................................................... 32

1. You are entrusted with the task of performing EIA of expanding tourism activities in remote

islands with tribal communities. Discuss in detail the methodologies you would follow. ................ 32

2. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 33

a) Environmental Management Plans (EMP): .............................................................................. 33

b) Indicators.............................................................................................................................. 34

3. Discuss the various methods of EIA using a highway construction in a coastal area. ................... 35

4. Are you satisfied with the way in which EIAS are performed in our country? What improvements

you would suggest for undertaking EIA of tourism projects in protected areas? ............................ 37

Unit 5............................................................................................................................................... 38

1. Define conservation from tourism perspective and discuss its relevance for evolving responsible

tourism strategies for remote mountain ecosystems with pristine ecosystems and cultures. ......... 38

2. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 39

a) Tourism codes and conducts .................................................................................................. 39

b) Conservation and tourism ...................................................................................................... 40

3. Discuss the global code of ethics and discuss the potentials and constraints for adapting the same

in the Indian context.................................................................................................................. 41

4. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 42

a) Tourism and Biodiversity conservation.................................................................................... 42

b) NRM ..................................................................................................................................... 43

UNIT 6.............................................................................................................................................. 43

i. Explain why you agree or disagree with the following propositions (with examples wherever

necessary):................................................................................................................................ 43

◦ Tourism is a smokeless industry in third world countries ........................................................... 43

◦ there is unlimited potential for tourism development in third world countries ........................... 44

◦ Participation of local communities is not required for tourism planning..................................... 44

ii. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 44

Tourism and Sustainable development ....................................................................................... 44

Equity issues and tourism development...................................................................................... 45

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iii. Discuss the basic guide lines for sustainable tourism in a remote island. .................................. 45

iv. Define integrated energy planning. Discuss its importance in the promotion of sustainable

tourism. .................................................................................................................................... 46

v. What are the constraints for implementing sustainable development strategies in our country?

How can we overcome them? .................................................................................................... 47

vi. Discuss the meaning of sustainability from tourism point of view............................................. 47

vii. Compare and contrast different property use regimes. Give suitable examples for each category.

................................................................................................................................................ 49

viii. Define common property resources. How would you differentiate them from common? ........ 50

ix. Pool resources? Is the tragedy of the commons inevitable? Discuss with examples from tourism.

................................................................................................................................................ 51

xi. Discuss the basic management strategies for common property resources with suitable examples

................................................................................................................................................ 52

x. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 53

1. Historical review of common property resources in India ......................................................... 53

2. Global commons.................................................................................................................... 54

xii. Write short notes on prisoner's dilemma game CAMPFIRE...................................................... 55

xiii. Under what ideal conditions common property resource management regimes will be

successful? Why? Discuss with suitable examples........................................................................ 55

Unit 7............................................................................................................................................... 57

1. Compare and contrast mass tourism with Eco-tourism with appropriate examples.................... 57

2. Define Ecotourism. Discuss the potentials and constraints for introducing Ecotourism in India... 58

3. With an example of a successful case study of community based ET, explain the methods you

would adopt to evolve a similar venture in India. ........................................................................ 60

4. Trace linkages between Eco tourism and Environment/ socioeconomic factors. Discuss with

suitable examples...................................................................................................................... 61

5. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 61

a) Water sports ......................................................................................................................... 61

Unit 8............................................................................................................................................... 62

1. Describe the various UN initiatives on Ecology and Environment that are relevant for the tourism

sector. ...................................................................................................................................... 62

2. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 66

a. Integrated decentralized environmental planning.................................................................... 66

b. CRZ ....................................................................................................................................... 67

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3. Critically evaluate the Environmental planning process in our country. Discuss the potentials for

improvements........................................................................................................................... 67

Unit 9............................................................................................................................................... 69

1. Trace the linkages between human populations, natural resources and development and discuss

the issues involved from tourism perspective.............................................................................. 69

2. Describe the basic principles of Human Ecology. In what ways they can be related to tourism?.. 72

3. Write short notes on .............................................................................................................. 74

a) Non-equilibrium Ecology NEQ................................................................................................ 74

b) Integrated energy- environmental planning for tourism........................................................... 74

4. Discuss the constraints for energy /environment management in our country. Suggest suitable

remedial measures. ................................................................................................................... 75

5. Summarize the advantages and limitations of each of the following proposals for increasing

world food supplies and reducing hunger over the next 30 years. ................................................ 77

a. Cultivating more land by clearing tropical forests and irrigating arid lands ................................ 77

b. Catching more fish in the open sea ......................................................................................... 77

c. Producing more fish and shellfish with aquaculture ................................................................. 78

d. Increasing the yield per area of cropland................................................................................. 78

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Unit-1

1. What do you understand by the following terms?

a. What is Ecology?

Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their

physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals

and the world around them. Ecology also provides information about the benefits of ecosystems

and how we can use Earth's resources in ways that leave the environment healthy for future

generations.

Ecologists study these relationships among organisms and habitats of many different sizes,

ranging from the study of microscopic bacteria growing in a fish tank, to the complex

interactions between the thousands of plant, animal, and other communities found in a desert.

Ecologists also study many kinds of environments. For example, ecologists may study microbes

living in the soil under your feet or animals and plants in a rainforest or the ocean

b. What is an Ecosystem?

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area,

interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun,

soil, climate, atmosphere). Ecosystem simply means "ecological system" Ecology is the study of

ecosystems. In an ecosystem, each organism has its' own niche or role to play.

Consider a small puddle at the back of your home. In it, you may find all sorts of living things,

from microorganisms to insects and plants. These may depend on non-living things like water,

sunlight, turbulence in the puddle, temperature, atmospheric pressure and even nutrients in the

water for life.

c. What Is the Environment?

The environment is something you are very familiar with. It's everything that makes up our

surroundings and affects our ability to live on the earth—the air we breathe, the water that covers

most of the earth's surface, the plants and animals around us, and much more.

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways that people affect the

environment. They have found that we are causing air pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and

other problems that are dangerous both to the earth and to ourselves. These days, when you hear

people talk about ―the environment‖, they are often referring to the overall condition of our

planet, or how healthy it is.

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2. Discuss the importance of habitat diversity and biodiversity from tourism point of view.

Every species requires a certain set of environmental conditions to be able to move around, feed

and reproduce. Whether it‘s in the forest, grassland, desert, tundra, or ocean, the place where

each species finds the conditions it needs to live and thrive is called its habitat.

Why Conserving Habitats Is Important

When habitats are threatened, so are the animals who live there. For example, wolverines and

bears roam across vast distances, so when their habitat is broken up by roads or other

commercial development, their ability to survive is jeopardized. And we‘ve all seen what can

happen to wildlife, such as birds, sea turtles and marine mammals, when an oil disaster strikes,

like the one in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. By protecting habitats, we‘re protecting wildlife.

Major Threats

Climate Change

Our warming planet is playing havoc habitats around the world. For example, melting sea ice in

the Arctic prevents polar bears from finding food and shelter, while changing rain patterns put

forests and the animals that live there at greater risk from wildfires.

Habitat Loss & Degradation

Agriculture. Industrial development. Urban sprawl. These are all factors that have contributed to

the extensive loss and fragmentation of prime wildlife habitat, which in turn has brought many

animals to the brink of extinction, like the critically endangered jaguar or Florida panther. Even

habitats that are large enough to support the wildlife living there can suffer negative impacts that

affect wildlife. Every day, habitats are subjected to pollution from pesticides, oil spills and

agricultural runoff.

What Defenders Is Doing to Help Protect Habitats

For decades, Defenders of Wildlife has played a leading role in helping shape smart conservation

policies for managing national wildlife refuges, national forests, and other public lands because

these areas, owned by all Americans, represent some of the last best places for wildlife to thrive.

We also work with state agencies and private landowners to help develop and implement

conservation plans that will preserve environmentally important areas long into the future.

And our in-house experts are working to help wildlife adapt to the impacts of climate change and

ensure renewable energy projects are developed in ways that don‘t harm important habitats.

What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity or Biological diversity is a term that describes the variety of living beings on earth.

In short, it is described as degree of variation of life. Biological diversity encompasses

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microorganism, plants, animals and ecosystems such as coral reefs, forests, rainforests, deserts

etc.

Biodiversity also refers to the number, or abundance of different species living within a

particular region. It represents the wealth of biological resources available to us. It‘s all about the

sustaining the natural area made up of community of plants, animals, and other living things that

is begin reduced at a steady rate as we plan human activities that is being reduced by habitat

destruction.

Why is Biodiversity Important?

Biodiversity has a number of functions on the Earth. These are as follows:

Maintaining balance of the ecosystem: Recycling and storage of nutrients, combating

pollution, and stabilizing climate, protecting water resources, forming and protecting soil and

maintaining ecobalance.

Provision of biological resources: Provision of medicines and pharmaceuticals, food for the

human population and animals, ornamental plants, wood products, breeding stock and diversity

of species, ecosystems and genes.

Social benefits: Recreation and tourism, cultural value and education and research.

The role of biodiversity in the following areas will help make clear the importance of

biodiversity in human life:

Biodiversity and food: 80% of human food supply comes from 20 kinds of plants. But humans

use 40,000 species for food, clothing and shelter. Biodiversity provides for variety of foods for

the planet.

Biodiversity and human health: The shortage of drinking water is expected to create a major

global crisis. Biodiversity also plays an important role in drug discovery and medicinal

resources. Medicines from nature account for usage by 80% of the world‘s population.

Biodiversity and industry: Biological sources provide many industrial materials. These include

fiber, oil, dyes, rubber, water, timber, paper and food.

Biodiversity and culture: Biodiversity enhances recreational activities like bird watching,

fishing, trekking etc. It inspires musicians and artists.

3. Discuss the importance of carrying capacity and absorbing capacity from tourism point of

view.

Carrying capacity

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Tourism carrying capacity is a now antiquated approach to managing visitors in protected areas

and national parks which evolved out of the fields of range, habitat and wildlife management. In

these fields, managers attempted to determine the largest population of a particular species that

could be supported by a habitat over a long period of time. Many authors, such as Buckley,

Wagar, Washburne, McCool, and Stankey have critiqued the concept as being fatally flawed in

both the conceptual assumptions made and its limited practical application. For example, the

notion of a carrying capacity assumes the world, such as the social-ecological systems in which

protected areas and tourism destinations are situated, are stable. But we know they are

dynamically complex and impossible to predict. We know that to implement a carrying capacity

on a practical level, assumes a level of control of entries into a destination or protected area not

usually found in the real world. We know that a carrying capacity, if one could be determined,

requires considerable financial and technical resources to administer; and we know that when

demand exceeds a limit, the ways in which scarce opportunities are allocated are contentious.

"Tourism Carrying Capacity" is defined by the World Tourism Organisation as ―The maximum

number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing

destruction of the physical, economic, socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease

in the quality of visitors' satisfaction‖. Whereas Middleton and Hawkins Chamberlain (1997)

define it as ―the level of human activity an area can accommodate without the area deteriorating,

the resident community being adversely affected or the quality of visitors experience

declining‖[2] what both these definitions pick up on is carrying capacity is the point at which a

destination or attraction starts experiencing adverse as a result of the number of visitors.

Unfortunately, there are no studies which support this notion of visitor management. For

example, in areas which have an objective of maintaining pristine conditions, any level of visitor

use creates adverse or negative impacts, suggesting that the carrying capacity is zero.

Fundamentally, acceptable conditions are a matter of human judgment, not an inherent quality of

a particular site. Understanding these acceptable conditions is the focus of the limits of

acceptable change planning process referred to later in this article.

There are number of different forms of carrying capacity referred to in tourism, however this

article will focus on the four most commonly used. However, these conceptions are useful only

to the extent they focus discussion and discourse, not practical application.

Absorbing capacity

Absorbing capacity of the ecosystem is defined as a capacity of the ecosystem to withstand the

negative environmental impacts mostly in the form of degradation/pollution without any major

effects on the ecosystem yield. There are a few organisms which can tolerate the degradation /

pollution (e.g.Chironomous larvae) and there are some other organisms which can detoxify the

pollutants generated by human activities (eg. some plants such as water hyacinth and certain

microbes). However, they can function only within certain limits.

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The absorbing capacity make the earth regenerative; the living organisms (plants, animals and

microbes) absorb, recycle and regenerate the organic wastes and to some extent the inorganic

wastes, thus maintaining the life support systems. Thus, absorbing capacity is one of the

important ecosystem properties for tourism planning, especially in environmentally fragile areas

such as mountains, island / coastal ecosystems, which incidentally draw a large number of

tourists.

4. Write short notes on

a. Properties of Ecosystems

Management of the environment with an ecosystem perspective should also consider that

systems have emergent properties that are not possessed by their individual components, i.e. they

are more than the sum of their parts. One example is the resilience of an ecosystem to absorb

disturbance and return to its original structure and functioning, such as resilience to the

harvesting of crops, animals or timber. Ecosystems can be transformed to a different level of

functioning if a change in ecosystem structure crosses some threshold level. Such structural

changes can be the removal of predators or other levels from the food web, or simplification of

vegetation or soil structure. Thresholds can also be crossed when valued species are lost or the

functioning of the water and mineral cycles significantly changes. Local climate, soils and

topography are also major determinants of ecosystem resilience.

b. Ecosystems processes, goods and services

Ecosystems can be studied using modeling. Ecosystems provide us with the following essential goods/materials and services/functions:

Ecosystem processes (Ecosystem functions – non- monetary values)

Energy and carbon enter ecosystems through photosynthesis, are incorporated into living tissue,

transferred to other organisms that feed on the living and dead plant matter, and eventually released through respiration. Most mineral nutrients, on the other hand, are recycled within

ecosystems. • Hydrologic flux and storage

• Biological productivity

• Biogeochemical cycling & storage

• Decomposition and Maintenance of Biodiversity

Ecosystem goods (monetary values)

Ecological goods are the products of the processes and interactions (described above) of natural systems. For example, plants capturing energy from the sun, combined with water and nutrients from the soil and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are able to manufacture food for use by

all other organisms. The food is considered a good.

• Food, fuel, fodder & fertilizer

• •Construction materials

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• Medicinal plants

• Wild genes

• Tourism and recreation

Ecosystem services

The natural world provides us with the essential services we require for life. These services are called ecological services – the interactions among organisms and their natural environments,

including the cycling of water and basic nutrients that humans are able to use and capitalize on. Ecological services include:

Purification of air and water Mitigation of floods and droughts

Detoxification and decomposition of wastes Generation and renewal of soil and natural vegetation

Pollination of crops and natural vegetation Control of the vast majority of potential agricultural pests Dispersal of seeds and translocation of nutrients

Maintenance of biodiversity Protection from the sun‘s harmful ultraviolet rays

Partial stabilization of climate Moderation of temperature extremes and the force of winds and waves Support of diverse human culture

Providing aesthetic beauty and intellectual stimulation that lift the human spirit.

5. State the five basic laws of Ecology. In what ways these laws are related to /affected your

life style and your immediate surroundings? Discuss with examples from tourism

Barry Commoner, the author of the book ―The closing circle‖, proposes the following four basic

laws of ecology:

i. Everything including humans and non-humans, is interconnected, interdependent, and

interactive and intermingled with everything else.

We are all in it together a common human notion, however, is that nature is assembled like a

machine, acts like a machine, and thus can be treated like a machine, which has interchangeable

parts, like a car, not necessarily related or interconnected. The end result of such a

mechanistic/reductionist approach most often comes down to misunderstanding how humans

interact with their environment and then miscalculation in efforts to protect against or remedy

environmental damage. E.g. intensifying tourism activities on mountain slopes (buildings, roads

etc.) will destroy soil cover, decrease biodiversity, increase soil-erosion/floods, and affect the

low land settlements / Agro ecosystems. This is exactly what we are witnessing in popular hill

stations like Ooty and Kodaikanal.

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ii. Everything must go somewhere

Any human activity (including that of tourism), will result in a waste product and it will pollute

the surroundings–e.g. transportation modes, consumption of water and production and

consumption of energy and food.

iii. There is no such thing as a free lunch

You have to pay the environmental cost of development - although unequally because of lack of

equity in our societies. You may reduce the negative costs of development, but you may not be

able to completely eliminate it. E.g. industrial production and pollution of air, water and soil as a

consequence of development activities.

iv. Nature knows Best

It is preferable to conserve or sustainably mange the unspoiled /undisturbed habitats/ Ecosystems

as such without any human intervention, since nature has the innate capacity to heal /repair itself,

within certain limits. E.g. In spite of our successful attempts to land on the moon and to send

satellites around the earth's orbit, we still are not able to find and implement appropriate

solutions for the environmental problems caused by our greed to overexploit the natural

resources resulting in the loss of bio- diversity, soil erosion and pollution. If it has the potential

for Eco-tourism, an emerging all- inclusive sustainable type of tourism, we can introduce it

there, but with strict rules and regulations.

v. A fifth law is recently added which states that ―Nature is not only complex than we know, it is

more complex than we can know‖ i.e. in the complex zig -saw puzzles of the structure and

function of any natural ecosystem, we know the solutions for only a precious little but our

current knowledge indicates that it is the whole truth; it is only when we make new discoveries,

we are becoming aware of our ignorance. E.g. The disappearance of massive kelp beds (that one

way or another serve as feed for a wide a range of species from barnacles to bald eagles) in the

Alaskan coastal Pacific Ocean caused Governments and conservationists initially to hypothesize

that pollution and other man-made disturbances were potential culprits for their decline. It turned

out to be not that simple. In recent years, food of Pacific sea lions and seals have decreased due

to over fishing causing their population decline. These are a preferred prey of killer whales.

With decreases in food, whales started preying on sea otters that live in the giant kelp forests

along the Pacific coast. The sea otters prey on sea urchins, which in turn are a major consumer of

kelp. By the whales switching to sea otters for food, the otter populations consequently

decreased, and their feeding was no longer able to keep the urchin populations in check.

Thus, the urchins have overgrazed the kelp to the degree that these massive underwater forests

are now disappearing.

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These five basic laws of ecology are important not only for the academic community but also

for people from all walks of life - the scientists, the policy makers / implementers, NGOs / other

local institutions dealing with any aspect of development, leave alone tourism.

Unit 2

1. Discuss the conditions under which tourism is causing negative impacts in India. What are

your suggestions for reducing them?

NEGATIVE IMPACTS

1. Undesirable Social and Cultural Change: Tourism sometimes led to the destruction of the

social fabric of a community. The more tourists coming into a place, the more the perceived risk

of that place losing its identity. A good example is Goa. From the late 60's to the early 80's when

the Hippy culture was at its height, Goa was a haven for such hippies. Here they came in

thousands and changed the whole culture of the state leading to a rise in the use of drugs,

prostitution and human trafficking. This had a ripple effect on the country.

2. Increase Tension and Hostility: Tourism can increase tension, hostility, and suspicion

between the tourists and the local communities when there is no respect and understanding for

each other‘s culture and way of life. This may further lead to violence and other crimes

committed against the tourists. The recent crime committed against Russian tourist in Goa is a

case in point.

3. Creating a Sense of Antipathy: Tourism brought little benefit to the local community. In

most all-inclusive package tours more than 80% of travelers‘ fees go to the airlines, hotels and

other international companies, not to local businessmen and workers. Moreover, large hotel

chain restaurants often import food to satisfy foreign visitors and rarely employ local staff for

senior management positions, preventing local farmers and workers from reaping the benefit of

their presence. This has often created a sense of antipathy towards the tourists and the

government.

4. Adverse Effects on Environment and Ecology: One of the most important adverse effects of

tourism on the environment is increased pressure on the carrying capacity of the ecosystem in

each tourist locality. Increased transport and construction activities led to large scale

deforestation and destabilisation of natural landforms, while increased tourist flow led to

increase in solid waste dumping as well as depletion of water and fuel resources. Flow of tourists

to ecologically sensitive areas resulted in destruction of rare and endangered species due to

trampling, killing, disturbance of breeding habitats. Noise pollution from vehicles and public

address systems, water pollution, vehicular emissions, untreated sewage, etc. also have direct

effects on bio-diversity, ambient environment and general profile of tourist spots.

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Tourism that is not managed in a proper manner can severely impact the environment of the

tourist destination.

This is the reason behind a new form of tourism carried out in a manner that is sustainable for the

environment of the tourist destination and at the same time beneficial for the local population

being adopted worldwide and is commonly referred to as eco-tourism.

Some strategies by which the negative environmental impacts of tourism are reduced in eco-

tourism include:

Providing an option for tourists to stay with the locals instead of living in special resorts

and hotels that have to be constructed for them. This affects the environment to a much

smaller extent. In addition, tourists are able to share the way in which the locals live,

which could be totally different from their own. The locals who accommodate the tourists

have an incentive to not change for the sake of tourism as it is their original lifestyle that

the tourists come to see.

Educating tourists about their impact on the environment of the tourist destination and

telling them how they can keep it as low as possible.

Educating the local population on why their protecting the environment around them is

essential to maintain tourism and assure they continue to benefit from it.

Ensuring the number of tourists who visit the location is sustainable so that tourism does

not cause a damage which would soon make the place unattractive for tourists.

Enforcing strict laws on what the tourists can take back from the location and ensure that

they cause no damage.

2. What are the impacts of tourism activities on water resources? How the negative impacts

can be controlled?

Water pollution and measure

Water is one of the most basic needs for the survival of all living organisms. Besides the water

found in the body of the organisms water is used for agricultural, domestic community,

commercial, industrial and recreational purposes. The sources of water pollution include point

and non-point sources like discharges from industries and storm water respectively. While

pollution from point sources can be controlled, it is difficult to control pollution from non-point

sources such as agriculture run-off, leaching from waste disposal sites and storm water. Both the

surface and sub-surface waters are polluted due to various human activities such as use of agro-

chemicals, industrial wastes and pollutants and domestic sewage. Rapid increase in population,

intensive agriculture, growing industrialization and urbanization has resulted in progressive

deterioration in the quality of water in our natural reservoirs.

The following are the major types of water pollutants:

a. Organic wastes-domestic sewage, industrial sewage of plant / animal origin (Food processing

industries, distilleries) - high BOD and low 02 (optimum 02 level 4-6 ppm)

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b. Living agents - Bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms can cause water-borne diseases

eg. Vibrio cholerae, Myco bacterium tuberculum, polio virusus and some algae

c. Plant nutrients -N2 and P from agricultural run-off and fertilizer factories -Eutrophication

(sewage also contain N2 and P)

d. Synthetic organic chemicals-Insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, nomatocides

with higher stability and persistence which aggravate the problems of pollution e.g. DDT,

dieldrin etc.

e. Inorganic chemical and mineral substances - cause hardness of water, corrosive effects -

metals, metal salts, acids, solid particulate matter etc. e.g. Mercury

f. Sediments-Deforestation and soil erosion -soil slips - suspended solids from sediments are at

least 700 times greater than those contributed by sewage; this will affect BOD, light,

respiration, food availability, behavior; this will also induce disruption of transport on roads,

siltation of dams, impacts on settlements and agro-ecosystems.

g. Radioactive materials from power stations, research centres/laboratories, industries, hospitals

h. Thermal pollution-hot water from power plants; the deep cold water from storage reservoirs

are used for cooling the power plants causing the surface water temperature to raise which

will have physiological effects on organisms e.g. Sacremont valley, California - rice growth

is affected.

Adopting the following strategies can control water pollution:

Prevention at source rather than end of the pipeline technologies i.e. pollution control at

source rather than pollution treatment.

Recycling the recyclable pollutants e.g. biogas from domestic sewage, refuse derived fuel

from municipal solid wastes etc.

Fiscal policy changes - pollution taxes, subsidies etc.

Adoption of appropriate pollution control technologies

Common effluent treatment plants (CFTP) for small scale industries

3. Discuss how various tourism activities either directly or indirectly cause air pollution.

Describe their impacts and control measures.

The World Health Organization defines air pollution as ―the presence of materials in the air in

such concentration which are harmful to man and his environment.‖

In fact air pollution is the occurrence or addition of foreign particles, gases and other pollutants

into the air which have an adverse effect on human beings, animals, vegetation, buildings, etc.

Cause of Air Pollution:

The various causes of air pollution are:

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(i) Combustion of natural gas, petroleum, coal and wood in industries, automobiles, aircrafts,

railways, thermal plants, agricultural burning, kitchens, etc. (soot, flyash, CO2, CO, nitrogen

oxides, sulphur oxides).

(ii) Metallurgical processing (mineral dust, fumes containing fluorides, sulphides and metallic

pollutants like lead, chromium, nickel, beryllium, arsenic, vanadium, cadmium, zinc, mercury).

(iii) Chemical industries including pesticides, fertilizers, weedicides, fungicides.

(iv) Cosmetics.

(v) Processing industries like cotton textiles, wheat flour mills, asbestos.

(vi) Welding, stone crushing, gem grinding.

Natural air pollutants include (a) pollen, spores, (b) marsh gas, (c) volcanic gases and (a)

synthesis of harmful chemicals by electric storms and solar flares. The major cause of pollution

in the urban areas is automobiles which inefficiently burn petroleum, releases 75% of noise and

80% of air pollutants. Concentration of industries in one area is another major cause of air

pollution.

Effect of Air Pollutants:

Air pollutants are broadly classified into particulate and gaseous. The particulate substances

include solid and liquid particles. The gaseous include substances that are in the gaseous state at

normal temperature and pressure. The air pollutants have adverse effect on human beings,

animals, vegetation, buildings. Air pollutants also change earth‘s climate. Aesthetic sense is also

influenced by air pollutants. The different air pollutants and their effects are as follows:

1. Particulate Matter:

It is of two types—settleable and suspended. The settleable dusts have a particle longer than 10

(am. The smaller particles are able to remain suspended for long periods in the air. The important

effects of particulate matter are.

(i) Dust and smoke particles cause irritation of the respiratory tract and produces bronchitis,

asthma and lung diseases.

(ii) Smog is a dark or opaque fog which is formed by the dust and smoke particles causing

condensation of water vapours around them as well as attracting chemicals like SO2, H2S, NO2,

etc. Smog harms plant life through glazing and necrosis besides reduced availability of light. In

human beings and animals it produces respiratory troubles.

(iii) Particulate matter suspended in air, scatters and partly absorbs light. In industrial and urban

areas, sunlight is reduced to 1/3 in summer and 2/3 in winter.

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(iv) At a concentration above 150 g/100m3, cotton dust in ginning process produces

pneumoconiosis or lung fibrosis called byssinosis. Lung fibrosis produced in other industries

includes asbestosis (in asbestos industry), silicosis (stone grinders), siderosis (iron mill), coal

miners‘ pneumoconiosis, flour mill pneumoconiosis, etc.

2. Carbon monoxide:

It accounts for 50% of the total atmospheric pollutants. It is formed by incomplete combustion of

carbon fuels in various industries, motor vehicles, hearths, kitchens, etc. Carbon monoxide

combines with haemoglobin of blood and impairs its oxygen carrying capacity. At higher

concentration, carbon monoxide proves lethal.

3. Sulphur Oxides:

They occur mainly in the form of sulphur dioxide. It is produced in large quantity during

smelting of metallic ores and burning of petroleum and coal in industries, thermal plants, home

and motor vehicles. In the air, SO2 combines with water to form sulphurous acid (H2SO3) which

is the cause of acid rain. It causes chlorosis and necrosis of vegetation. Sulphur dioxide, above 1

ppm, affects human beings. It causes irritation to eyes and injury to respiratory tract. It results in

discolouration and deterioration of buildings, sculptures, painted surfaces, fabrics, paper, leather,

etc.

4. Nitrogen Oxides:

They are produced naturally through biological and non-biological activities from nitrates,

nitrites, electric storms, high energy radiations and solar flares. Human activity forms nitrogen

oxides in combustion process of industries, automobiles, incinerators and nitrogen fertilizers.

Nitrogen oxides act on unsaturated hydrocarbons to form peroxy-acyl nitrates or PAN. It gives

rise to photochemical smog. They cause eye irritation, respiratory troubles, blood congestion and

dilation of arteries.

5. Carbon dioxide:

Due to excessive combustion activity, the content of C02 has been steadily rising. As carbon

dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere it absorbs more and more of the reflected infrared

radiation. This could cause an increase in temperature referred to as the green house effect.

Melting polar ice caps and glaciers could cause sea levels to rise, flooding most of the major

population centres and fertile lands.

6. Phosgene and Methyl Isocyanate:

Phosgene (COCl2) is a poisonous and suffocating volatile liquid which is employed in dye

industry and synthesis of organic compounds. Release of phosgene and MIC in industrial

accident of Bhopal (Dec. 2, 1984) killed over 2500 and maimed several thousand persons.

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7. Aerosols:

They are widely used as disinfectants. Other sources are jet plane emissions which contain

chlorofluorocarbons. Chlorofluorocarbons are also used in refrigeration and formation of certain

types of solid plastic foams. Burning of plastics produces polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The

latter are persistent and pass into the food chain. Chlorofluorocarbons and carbon tetrachloride

react with ozone layers of stratosphere and hence deplete the same.

8. Photochemical oxidants:

Hydrocarbons have carcinogen properties. Some of these are also harmful to plants because they

cause senescence and abscission. In the presence of sunlight, hydrocarbons react with nitrogen

oxides to produce ozone, peroxy-acyl nitrates, aldehydes and other compounds. Peroxy-acyl

nitrates are a major constituent of air pollution. They cause eye irritation and respiratory

diseases.

9. Automobile Exhausts:

They are one of the major sources of air pollution. The important pollutants are Carbon

monoxide, Benzpyrene, Lead, Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur compounds and Ammonia.

10. Pollen and Microbes:

Excess of microbes in the atmosphere directly damage the vegetation, food articles and causes

diseases in plants, animals and human beings. Excess of pollen causes allergic reactions in

several human beings. The common reactions are also collectively called hay-fever. The

important allergic pollen belong to Amaranthus spinosus, Chenopodium album, Cynodon

dactylon, Ricinus communis, Sorghum vulgare, Prosopis chilensis etc.

Control of Air Pollution:

1. Industrial estates should be established at a distance from residential areas.

2. Use of tall chimneys shall reduce the air pollution in the surroundings and compulsory use of

filters and electrostatic precipitators in the chimneys.

3. Removal of poisonous gases by passing the fumes through water tower scrubber or spray

collector.

4. Use of high temperature incinerators for reduction in particulate ash production.

5. Development and employment of non-combustive sources of energy, e.g., nuclear power,

geothermal power, solar power, tidal power, wind power, etc.

6. Use of non-lead antiknock agents in gasoline.

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7. Attempt should be made to develop pollution free fuels for automobiles, e.g., alcohol,

hydrogen, battery power. Automobiles should be fitted with exhaust emission controls.

8. Industrial plants and refineries should be fitted with equipment for removal and recycling of

wastes.

9. Growing plants capable of fixing carbon monoxide, e.g. Phaseolus vulgaris, Coleus blumei,

Daucus carota, Ficus variegata (Bidwell and Bebee, 1974).

10. Growing plants capable of metabolising nitrogen oxides and other gaseous pollutants, e.g.,

Vitis, Pimis, Jttniperus, Quercus, Pyrus, Robinia pseudo-acacia, Viburnum, Crataegus, Ribes,

Rhamnus.

11. Afforestation of the mining area on priority basis.

4. List the sources and types of solid wastes generated by various tourism activities. What

are the impacts? How would you manage solid wastes?

Solid waste management is a polite term for garbage management. As long as liumans have been living in settled communities, solid waste, or garbage, has been an issue, and modern societies generate far more solid waste than early humans ever did.

Daily life in industrialized nations can generate several pounds of solid waste per consumer, not

only directly in the home, but indirectly in factories that manufacture goods purchased by consumers.

Garbage: many broad categories of garbage are:

Organic waste: kitchen waste, vegetables, flowers, leaves, fruits.

Toxic waste: old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide

containers, batteries, shoe polish.

Recyclable: paper, glass, metals, plastics.

Hospital waste such as cloth with blood

Types & Source of Solid Wastes:

Basically solid waste can be classified into different types depending on their source:

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Effects of Solid Waste Pollution:

Municipal solid wastes heap up on the roads due to improper disposal system. People clean their

own houses and litter their immediate surroundings which affects the community including

themselves.

This type of dumping allows biodegradable materials to decompose under uncontrolled and

unhygienic conditions. This produces foul smell and breeds various types of insects and

infectious organisms besides spoiling the aesthetics of the site. Industrial solid wastes are sources

of toxic metals and hazardous wastes, which may spread on land and can cause changes in

physicochemical and biological characteristics thereby affecting productivity of soils.

Toxic substances may leach or percolate to contaminate the ground water. In refuse mixing, the

hazardous wastes are mixed with garbage and other combustible wastes. This makes segregation

and disposal all the more difficult and risky.

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Various types of wastes like cans, pesticides, cleaning solvents, batteries (zinc, lead or mercury),

radioactive materials, plastics and e-waste are mixed up with paper, scraps and other non-toxic

materials which could be recycled. Burning of some of these materials produces dioxins, furans

and polychlorinated biphenyls, which have the potential to cause various types of ailments

including cancer.

3. Methods of Solid Wastes Disposal:

i. Sanitary Landfill

ii. Incineration

iii. Composting

iv. Pyrolysis

i. Sanitary Land Filling:

In a sanitary landfill, garbage is spread out in thin layers, compacted and covered with clay or

plastic foam. In the modern landfills the bottom is covered with an impermeable liner, usually

several layers of clay, thick plastic and sand. The liner protects the ground water from being

contaminated due to percolation of leachate.

Leachate from bottom is pumped and sent for treatment. When landfill is full it is covered with

clay, sand, gravel and top soil to prevent seepage of water. Several wells are drilled near the

landfill site to monitor if any leakage is contaminating ground water. Methane produced by

anaerobic decomposition is collected and burnt to produce electricity or heat. Sanitary Landfills

Site Selection:

i. Should be above the water table, to minimize interaction with groundwater.

ii. Preferably located in clay or silt.

iii. Do not want to place in a rock quarry, as water can leech through the cracks inherent in rocks

into a water fracture system.

iv. Do not want to locate in sand or gravel pits, as these have high leeching. Unfortunately, most

of Long Island is sand or gravel, and many landfills are located in gravel pits, after they were no

longer being used.

v. Do not want to locate in a flood plain. Most garbage tends to be less dense than water, so if the

area of the landfill floods, the garbage will float to the top and wash away downstream.

A large number of adverse impacts may occur from landfill operations. These impacts can vary:

i. Fatal accidents (e.g., scavengers buried under waste piles).

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ii. Infrastructure damage (e.g., damage to access roads by heavy vehicles).

iii. Pollution of the local environment (such as contamination of groundwater and/or aquifers by

leakage and residual soil contamination during landfill usage, as well as after landfill closure).

iv. Off gassing of methane generated by decaying organic wastes (methane is a greenhouse gas

many times more potent than carbon dioxide, and can itself be a danger to inhabitants of an

area).

v. Harbouring of disease vectors such as rats and flies, particularly from improperly operated

landfills.

ii. Incineration:

The term incinerates means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes. An incinerator is a

unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is reduced to ash. An

incinerator is constructed of heavy, well-insulated materials, so that it does not give off extreme

amounts of external heat.

The high levels of heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently. If the heat were allowed to escape, the waste would not burn as completely or as

rapidly. Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to

combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is useful for

disposal of residue of both solid waste management and solid residue from waste water

management. This process reduces the volumes of solid waste to 20 to 30 per cent of the original

volume.

Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as

―thermal treatment‖. Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam and ash.

Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry. It

is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. It is recognized as a practical method of

disposing of certain hazardous waste materials. Incineration is a controversial method of waste

disposal, due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants.

iii. Composting:

Due to shortage of space for landfill in bigger cities, the biodegradable yard waste (kept separate

from the municipal waste) is allowed to degrade or decompose in a medium. A good quality

nutrient rich and environmental friendly manure is formed which improves the soil conditions

and fertility.

Organic matter constitutes 35%-40% of the municipal solid waste generated in India. This waste

can be recycled by the method of composting, one of the oldest forms of disposal. It is the

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natural process of decomposition of organic waste that yields manure or compost, which is very

rich in nutrients.

Composting is a biological process in which micro-organisms, mainly fungi and bacteria, convert

degradable organic waste into humus like substance. This finished product, which looks like soil,

is high in carbon and nitrogen and is an excellent medium for growing plants.

The process of composting ensures the waste that is produced in the kitchens is not carelessly

thrown and left to rot. It recycles the nutrients and returns them to the soil as nutrients. Apart

from being clean, cheap, and safe, composting can significantly reduce the amount of disposable

garbage.

The organic fertilizer can be used instead of chemical fertilizers and is better specially when used

for vegetables. It increases the soil‘s ability to hold water and makes the soil easier to cultivate. It

helped the soil retain more of the plant nutrients.

Vermi-composting has become very popular in the last few years. In this method, worms are

added to the compost. These help to break the waste and the added excreta of the worms makes

the compost very rich in nutrients. In the activity section of this web site you can learn how to

make a compost pit or a vermi-compost pit in your school or in the garden at home.

To make a compost pit, you have to select a cool, shaded corner of the garden or the school

compound and dig a pit, which ideally should be 3 feet deep. This depth is convenient for

aerobic composting as the compost has to be turned at regular intervals in this process.

Preferably the pit should be lined with granite or brick to prevent nitrite pollution of the subsoil

water, which is known to be highly toxic. Each time organic matter is added to the pit it should

be covered with a layer of dried leaves or a thin layer of soil which allows air to enter the pit

thereby preventing bad odour. At the end of 45 days, the rich pure organic matter is ready to be

used. Composting: some benefits

i. Compost allows the soil to retain more plant nutrients over a longer period.

ii. It supplies part of the 16 essential elements needed by the plants.

iii. It helps reduce the adverse effects of excessive alkalinity, acidity, or the excessive use of

chemical fertilizer.

iv. It makes soil easier to cultivate.

v. It helps keep the soil cool in summer and warm in winter.

vi. It aids in preventing soil erosion by keeping the soil covered.

vii. It helps in controlling the growth of weeds in the garden.

iv. Pyrolysis:

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Pyrolysis is a form of incineration that chemically decomposes organic materials by heat in the

absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis typically occurs under pressure and at operating temperatures

above 430 °C (800 °F).

In practice, it is not possible to achieve a completely oxygen-free atmosphere. Because some

oxygen is present in any pyrolysis system, a small amount of oxidation occurs. If volatile or

semi-volatile materials are present in the waste, thermal desorption will also occur.

Organic materials are transformed into gases, small quantities of liquid, and a solid residue

containing carbon and ash. The off-gases may also be treated in a secondary thermal oxidation

unit. Particulate removal equipment is also required. Several types of pyrolysis units are

available, including the rotary kiln, rotary hearth furnace, and fluidized bed furnace. These units

are similar to incinerators except that they operate at lower temperatures and with less air supply.

Limitations and Concerns:

i. The technology requires drying of soil prior to treatment.

ii. Limited performance data are available for systems treating hazardous wastes containing

polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and other organics. There is concern that systems

that destroy chlorinated organic molecules by heat have the potential to create products of

incomplete combustion, including dioxins and furans. These compounds are extremely toxic in

the parts per trillion ranges. The MSO process reportedly does not produce dioxins and furans.

iii. The molten salt is usually recycled in the reactor chamber. However, depending on the waste

treated (especially inorganics) and the amount of ash, spent molten salt may be hazardous and

require special care in disposal.

iv. pyrolysis is not effective in either destroying or physically separating in organics from the

contaminated medium. Volatile metals may be removed as a result of the higher temperatures

associated with the process, but they are not destroyed. By-products containing heavy metals

may require stabilization before final disposal.

v. When the off-gases are cooled, liquids condense, producing an oil/tar residue and

contaminated water. These oils and tars may be hazardous wastes, requiring proper treatment,

storage, and disposal.

5. Define noise pollution. Describe the causes and impacts of noise pollution.

Definition:

Sound, a normal feature of our life, is the means of communication and entertainment in most

animals, including human beings. It is also a very effective alarm system. A low sound is

pleasant whereas a loud sound is unpleasant and is commonly referred to as ‗noise‘. Noise can be

defined as an unpleasant and unwanted sound.

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Whether a given sound is as pleasant as music or as unpleasant as noise depends on its loudness,

duration, rhythm and the mood of the person. But loudness is definitely the most significant

criterion which converts sound into noise. Exposure to loud noise is indeed annoying and

harmful too.

Noise is a physical form of pollution and is not directly harmful to the life supporting systems

namely air, soil and water. Its effects are more directly on the receiver i.e. man. Noise pollution

is the result of modern industrialized urban life and congestion due to over population.

Even though noise pollution is not fatal to human life, yet its importance cannot be overlooked

because repeated exposure to noise reduces the sleeping hours and productivity or efficiency of a

human being. It affects the peace of mind and invades the privacy of a human being. The

importance of noise pollution as environmental problem is being recognised as the ill effects of

noise on human health and environment are becoming evident with each passing day.

Major causes / sources of noise pollution are:

(i) Industrial Sources:

Progress in technology (industrialization) has resulted in creating noise pollution. Textile mills,

printing presses, engineering establishments and metal works etc. contribute heavily towards

noise pollution. In industrial cities like Kolkata, Ludhiana, Kanpur etc., often the industrial zones

are not separated from the residential zones of the city especially in the case of small scale

industries.

These operate from workshops located on the ground floors of the residential areas and cause

annoyance, discomfort and irritation to the residents exposed to the noise that is inevitably

produced. The situation is much better in modern planned cities like Chandigarh where the

industrial area is kept away from the residential areas and both are separated from each other by

a sufficiently wide green belt.

(ii) Transport Vehicles:

Automobile revolution in urban centers has proved to be a big source of noise pollution.

Increasing traffic has given rise to traffic jams in congested areas where the repeated hooting of

horns by impatient drivers pierce the ears of all road users.

Noise from airplanes constitutes an increasing serious problem in big cities like Delhi &

Mumbai. Airport situated in the vicinity of population centres and the air planes pass over

residential areas. Heavy trucks, buses trains, jet-planes, motor-cycles, scooters, mopeds, jeeps—

the list of vehicles is endless but the outcome is same — noise pollution.

(iii) Household:

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The household is an industry in itself and is a source of many indoor noises such as the banging

of doors, noise of playing children, crying of infants, moving of furniture, loud conversation of

the inhabitants etc. Besides these are the entertainment equipment in the house, namely the radio,

record-players and television sets. Domestic gadgets like the mixer-grinders, pressure cookers,

desert coolers, air- conditioners, exhaust fans, vacuum cleaners, sewing and washing machines

are all indoor sources of noise pollution.

(iv) Public Address System:

In India people need only the slightest of an excuse for using loud speakers. The reason may be a

religious function, birth, death, marriage, elections, demonstration, or just commercial

advertising. Public system, therefore, contributes in its own way towards noise pollution.

(v) Agricultural Machines:

Tractors, thrashers, harvesters, tube wells, powered tillers etc. have all made agriculture highly

mechanical but at the same time highly noisy. Noise level 90 dB to 98 dB due to running of farm

machines have been recorded in the state of Punjab.

(vi) Defence Equipment:

A lot of noise pollution is added to the atmosphere by artillery, tanks, launching of rockets,

explosions, exercising of military airplanes and shooting practices. Screams of jet engines and

sonic booms have a deafening impact on the ears and in extreme cases have been known to

shatter the window panes and old dilapidated buildings.

(vii) Miscellaneous Sources:

The automobile repair shops, construction-works, blasting, bulldozing, stone crushing etc. are

other sources of noise pollution.

Effects of Noise:

Noise is generally harmful and a serious health hazard. It has far-reaching consequences and has

many physical, physiological as well as psychological effects on human beings.

(i) Physical Effects:

The physical manifestation of noise pollution is the effect on hearing ability. Repeated exposure

to noise may result in temporary or permanent shifting of the hearing threshold of a person

depending upon the level and duration of exposure. The immediate and acute effect of noise

pollution is impairment of hearing (i.e. total deafness.)

Human ears have sensory cells for hearing. If these cells are subjected to repeated sounds of high

intensity before they have an opportunity to recover fully, they can become permanently

22

damaged leading to impairment of hearing. Besides the sensory cells, the delicate tympanic

membrane or the ear drum can also be permanently damaged by a sudden loud noise such as an

explosion.

(ii) Physiological Effects:

The physiological manifestations of noise pollution are several as mentioned below:

(a) Headache by dilating blood vessels of the brain.

(b) Increase in the rate of heart-beat.

(c) Narrowing of arteries.

(d) Fluctuations in the arterial blood pressure by increasing the level of cholesterol in the blood.

(e) Decrease in heart output.

(f) Pain in the heart.

(g) Digestive spasms through anxiety and dilation of the pupil of the eye, thereby causing eye-

strain.

(h) Impairment of night vision.

(i) Decrease in the rate of colour perception.

(j) Lowering of concentration and affect on memory,

(k) Muscular strain and nervous breakdown.

(l) Psychological Effect

The psychological manifestations of noise pollution are:

(a) Depression and fatigue which considerably reduces the efficiency of a person.

(b) Insomnia as a result of lack of undisturbed and refreshing sleep

(c) Straining of senses and annoyance as a result of slow but persistent noise from motorcycles,

alarm clocks, call bells, telephone rings etc.

(d) Affecting of psychomotor performance of a person by a sudden loud sound

(e) Emotional disturbance

For a talkative person, the most important effect of noise pollution would invariably be that noise

interferes with our conservation. So, noise is annoying and the annoyance depends on many

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factors not merely the intensity of the sound but also repetition, because even a sound of small

intensity (e.g. dripping tap or clicking of clock) may become annoying, simply by repetition.

Some of the well- known effects of noise on human beings and the relation of noise pollution

level and its harmful effects are shown in Table respectively.

Table Noise Pollution Level and its Harmful Effects:

Level (in db) Effects

up to 23 ……………………….. No disturbance 30—60 ……………………….. Stress, tension, psychological (illness, heart

attact) effects especially at upper range. 60—90 ……………………….. Damage to health, psychological and

vegetative (disturbance in stomach-gall

function, pains in muscles, high blood pressure, disturbance in sleeping)

60—120 ……………………… Damages to health and ontological (ear diseases) effects

Above 120 ……………………. Painful effects in long run.

6. List 10 major ways to conserve water on a personal level. Which, if any, of these practices

do you now use or intend to use?

Here are ten simple things you can do to cut down on your water consumption today:

1. Consider the water footprint of your diet. Some foods require a lot more water to produce

than others. According to WaterFootprint, it takes 140 liters (35 gallons) of water to make just

one cup of coffee, 1,000 liters (270 gallons) to make one liter of milk, and 16,000 liters to make

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one pound of beef. Check out this online water footprint calculator to see how much water some

common foods need in order to be produced. The same principles of decreasing the carbon

footprint of your diet (eating local, eating organic, and eating less meat) are generally the same

principles for decreasing the water footprint.

2. Don’t leave the tap running needlessly. If you are washing your face and you need to get

the tap warm, use that initial cooler water to brush your teeth, and then wash your face

afterwards when the hot water starts coming out.

3. Choose and use your appliances wisely. Use energy star appliances whenever possible and

always use them at full capacity. Choose economy settings and don‘t run the dishwasher half-

full.

4. Convert your toilet to a dual flush, and don’t flush it more than necessary. If it‘s yellow

let it mellow, you know? But you still have to flush. Thankfully, converting your toilet to a dual

flush is easier than ever, thanks to the Tap-n-Flush. It‘s a remarkably easy installation, a very

intuitive device, and pays for itself in water savings super quickly. If you don‘t want to convert

and still want to save water, you might find this toilet tank insert super helpful, too…it‘ll reduce

the amount of water used every time you flush. But if you really want to up your water

conservation game, check out the TapNFlush‘s dual flush toilet converter review. The device is

simple to install, saves a ton of water, and pays for itself more than twice over in the first year

alone. Here‘s a video of the device.

5. Make sure every tap in your home has a high efficiency faucet aerator. Faucet aerators are

the little pieces of hardware that screw into the bottom of faucets. High efficiency aerators can

reduce flow by 1.5 gallons per minute or more…saving you piles of money and saving lots of

water. Check out this high efficiency faucet aerator product review from Green Living Ideas.

6. Stop that leaky toilet. Not only does it sound annoying, it wastes loads of water. Leaks can

often be fixed by making minor adjustments. Test your toilet using some dye tablets, available in

this all-in-one water conservation kit.

7. Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. According to American Water & Energy

Savers, a faucet that drips at the rate of one drop per second will waste 2,700 gallons per year.

8. You don’t need to take shorter showers, necessarily, but some hardware will help cut the

water use every time you shower. At the very least replace your shower head with a high

efficiency one. These are designed to maintain water pressure while using much less water than

the old-fashioned sort. Treehugger says you will reduce your shower water use by 20 to 60

percent by doing so. Check out this high efficiency showerhead installation tutorial to see how

easy it is to cut your shower‘s water use (and save piles of money).

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9. Never throw water away. If you pour too much out or have some left in your glass, use it.

Pour the surplus into your dog‘s water dish, water a plant, or add it to your water kettle.

10. Set up a rain barrel this summer. You can collect rain water from your eaves to water your

garden.

There is so much that we as individuals can do to help conserve water. Our collective

conservation and advocacy efforts will not only reduce our monthly water bills, but will go a

long way towards alleviating this growing problem.

Unit 3

1. Write short notes on

a) Acid rain

In the 1970s the Trans boundary effects of industrial air pollution become known as acid rain.

Acid rain is a widespread term used to describe all forms of acid precipitation such as rain and

snow. Atmospheric pollutants, particularly oxides of sulphur and nitrogen react with water in the

atmosphere to form sulphuric and nitric acid, causing precipitation to become more acidic when

converted to sulphuric and nitric acids, hence the term acid rain. Acid deposition, acid rain and

acid precipitation - all relate to the chemistry of air pollution and moisture in the atmosphere.

Scientists generally use the term acid deposition but all three terms relate to the same issue.

Acid rain is particularly harmful to vegetation as the acid in the rain changes the pH of the soil

and leaches away important minerals. The amount of acid rain that an ecosystem can tolerate is

known as its critical load. After the sulphuric and nitric acids have formed in the atmosphere,

they can travel long distances with the wind before being deposited. In fact, much of the acid

rain found in Scandinavia originated from the UK. In response to these problems, a number of

agreements, including the Convention on Long- Range Transboundary Air Pollution (Geneva,

1979), have set out to reduce acid rain at the global level.

b) Ozone depletion

Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a

steady decline of about 4% in the total amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer),

and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions. The

latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric

phenomena, there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events.

The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of mid-latitude thinning but the most

important process in both is catalytic destruction of ozone by atomic halogens. The main source

of these halogen atoms in the stratosphere is photo dissociation of man-made halocarbon

refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents (CFCs, HCFCs, freons, halons).

26

These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by winds after being emitted at the

surface. Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halocarbons

increased.

CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS).

Since the ozone layer prevents most harmful UVB wavelengths (280–315 nm) of ultraviolet light

(UV light) from passing through the Earth's atmosphere, observed and projected decreases in

ozone generated worldwide concern, leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol that bans the

production of CFCs, halons, and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride

and trichloroethane. It is suspected that a variety of biological consequences such as increases in

sunburn, skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants, and reduction of plankton populations in the

ocean's photic zone may result from the increased UV exposure due to ozone depletion.

2. In what ways’ tourism activities can be linked to global environmental problems? Discuss

with suitable examples along with remedial measures

In this age of globalization, no matter where we live, we are affected by our own decisions - the

way we want to live - either sustainably or non- sustainably. Due to the increasing pressures on

globalization and the sheer momentum of the rate of development in developing countries in the

recent past, there is tremendous, insatiable demand for natural resources. In our mad rush for

development, we had forgotten the vital link between natural resources, technologies and 44

development. We have developed rapidly, recently. At the same time, sadly we have unwisely

degraded our precious natural resources. The changes we have inflicted on our mother nature are

no longer confined to only one region or even nation - they are becoming global.

Air pollution levels in a region are affected by wind, location, topography, and precipitation and

temperature inversions. Wind can carry pollutants to a distance of hundreds or perhaps thousands

of kms. Pollutants recognize no political boundaries. For instance, southern Norway and Sweden

get acid rain because of S02 blown from industries of England and other parts of Europe.

Similarly, in the case of Rhine River, the upstream countries are polluting the downstream

countries. Thus, the latter have to pay the environmental cost of pollutants, dumped by the

former.

Millions of tons of pollutants thrown into the atmosphere by USA are carried away by strong

winds to Canada and precipitate as acid rain. In India, sulphur dioxide released into the

atmosphere at Bombay flue stacks is carried away by South Westerly wind to Vorli and New

Bombay. Also in coastal areas land breezes carry pollution out to the sea and sea breeze bring

pollution back to the land.

Local wind pattern is affected by the topography and location of the region. High dispersion of

pollutants can be expected in plains and low dispersion in hills and mountains because they

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inhibit the flow of air leading to a buildup. Such conditions retard the escape of pollutants and

thus tend to concentrate them in a smaller area.

Under normal atmospheric conditions the air temperature drops steadily with increasing

elevations. When sunlight heats the earth, the heat is transferred to the air immediately above the

ground. Pollutants also rise up along with the warm air. Theoretically, a pollutant can be carried

right through the troposphere, but it cannot penetrate the stratosphere. In fact, air pollution is

confined to the first 100 meters of atmosphere above the ground. But the temperature at middle

elevations may become cooler or warmer than theoretical conditions. Then, in cooler conditions,

there is turbulence in the atmosphere because cool air, being denser than warm air, tends to fall.

If pollutants enter such atmosphere they get dispersed well and are diluted. However, during

warmer conditions, there is no turbulence and hence pollutants mix to lesser extent. When the

warm layer of air forms a ceiling over the denser cooler layer it leads to atmospheric inversion.

Then the pollutants will be trapped in the inversion layer because cool air is unable to rise. So the

concentration of air pollutants may reach dangerous levels. Sometimes, such inversions are local,

cover smaller area, and are short-lived. However, some inversions extend over thousands of

square Km.. These are common in mountain regions especially in winter, as the sun cannot

penetrate valley regions because of the shadow of mountains. In many industrialized countries,

severe air pollution episodes had occurred due to temperature inversion. For example, in 1952

nearly 4,000 people died in London in a five-day inversion at a height of 100-130m where

sulphur dioxide, sulphuric acid, and particulate sulphur were trapped. More such reports are

available from USA, Japan, London and Germany.

There are three major Global Environmental concerns that are created due to our non-sustainable

life-styles. They are global warming, acid rain and ozone depletion.

3. Give an account of Indian monsoons. Describe the monsoon tourism in India.

Indian monsoon, the most prominent of the world‘s monsoon systems, which primarily affects India and its surrounding water bodies. It blows from the northeast during cooler months and

reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year. This process brings large amounts of rainfall to the region during June and July.

At the Equator the area near India is unique in that dominant or frequent westerly winds occur at

the surface almost constantly throughout the year; the surface easterlies reach only to latitudes near 20° N in February, and even then they have a very strong northerly component. They soon

retreat northward, and drastic changes take place in the upper-air circulation (see climate: Jet streams). This is a time of transition between the end of one monsoon and the beginning of the next. Late in March the high-sun season reaches the Equator and moves farther north. With it go

atmospheric instability, convectional (that is, rising and turbulent) clouds, and rain. The westerly subtropical jet stream still controls the flow of air across northern India, and the surface winds

are northeasterlies.

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India flourishes in all seasons and accordingly country has many vacation spots for different seasons. During the hot summer season tourists choose beach destinations like Goa, Kerala or

hill stations like Munnar, Darjeeling and Manali. During winters season many tourist choose Rajasthan, Goa and Kashmir as their vacation destinations. You will never be disappointed

whichever season you select for your India vacations.

June to September is the general monsoon period in India. In the beginning of June, long hot

summer comes to an end, the warm soil and dust cools down. The earth appears breezy and gives you much comfort in rainy seasons. The magic of monsoon surely works on everyone.

Tourists' love for monsoon and its growing fondness brought focus on monsoon tourism in India.

Due to the great demand for monsoon tourism, tour agents' offers attractive holiday packages. Monsoon vacations in India seem to be a great idea for budget conscious tourists. Indian tourism

sector appears to be blessed as it witnesses a sudden rise in the number of tourists at the beginning of the rainy season, when the clouds starts covering the sky.

Natural Tours and Travels proprietor Devendra Singh Setia shares, "We offer various types of packages for tours to places like Kashmir, Bengaluru, Koorg and Goa during monsoon. Last year they got excellent response and good appreciation from those who planned their tour with us.

This time we a have special highlight for the tour to Amarnath yaatra. The return journey shall be by helicopter."

Kashmir and Amarnath Yaatra

Amarnath yaatra is one of the most awaited events of our country. Located in the Indian state of

Jammu and Kashmir , Amarnath cave is a famous shrine in Hinduism. It is dedicated to Shiva.

The shrine forms an important part of Hinduism and is considered to be one of the holiest shrines

in Hinduism. Snowy mountains surround the cave. The cave itself is covered with snow most

time of the year except for a short period of time in summer when it is open for pilgrims .

Inside the 130 feet high Amarnath cave that faces south, is the Shiva Linga, which waxes during

May to August and gradually wanes thereafter. This lingam is said to grow and shrink with the

phases of the moon, reaching its height during the summer festival.

According a Hindu legend, this is the cave where Shiva explained the secret of life and eternity

to his divine consort Parvati. Two other ice formations represent Parvati and Shiva's son,

Ganesha.

The beautiful capital of Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar is famous for its lakes and the numerous

houseboats that dot them. It is known as the Paradise on Earth and rightfully so. Its sparkling

rivers, gorgeous gardens and the overall natural beauty leave you completely spellbound.

Srinagar is also known for its traditional Kashmiri handicrafts and dry fruits. The spring season,

which extends from March to May, is possibly one of the most inviting times to visit this place.

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Showers are brief around this time, so it is advisable to carry light woolens.

Goa

Goa is an all time favourite destination for all seasons. Goa is especially beautiful from June to

September as nature flourishes here during this period. The rain brings romance in Goa and you

will feel this if you visit Dudhsagar Falls or take a cruise from Panaji. The aroma of the moist

vegetation at Periyar National Park during the monsoon gives a very special appeal.

Rajasthan

No other province eagerly awaits rains like the desert state of Rajasthan. After three long months

of summer, rains provide the much-needed relief to the land, which remains arid for most part of

the year. The month of Shravan (which coincides with July-August) is also the occasion for

several festive days. Celebrated to mark the advent of monsoon, traditionally, swings are hung

from trees for women to enjoy and pray for marital bliss. During monsoon you will get the real

flavour of Rajasthani culture.

Konkan

The entire Konkan stretch undergoes transformation with the first rains. Carpeted in a thick

blanket of green, Konkan is a sight to behold during monsoon. Besides natural beauty, Konkan is

rich in history. Of strategic importance, Konkan is closely associated with King Shivaji and the

Marathas. Littered with mountain forts and citadels, the pleasure of trekking to the historical

remnants during the rains is a perfect way to enjoy the season. Konkan also offers several scenic

beaches to enjoy the monsoon magic.

Kerala

The southern state is the first to receive the monsoon every year. Though Kerala remains covered

under a thick green cover through the year, the advent of rains adds a special hue to it. With

scores of tourists visiting Kerala during the rains, special packages are offered to entice visitors.

You might not be dry for too long during the monsoons in Kerala, but it's the ideal time for some

Ayurvedic rejuvenation. Imagine sitting on an easy chair and listening to the pitter patter of

rains. And we won't blame you for booking your tickets in minutes.

East India

The other famous destination for monsoon vacations in India is Shillong which is popularly

known as the 'Scotland of East'. There are many interesting places in Shillong that is a must

watch for tourists. Shillong has its own unique nature beauty. During monsoon, lakes and

waterfalls plays rhythmical music and wind whispers through dense forests. The attractions of

this beautiful place is Elephant Falls, Wards Lake, etc.

Ladakh

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Geographically, Ladakh is in the rain shadow area, which is why it is an ideal destination during

the monsoons. But a few rain-laden clouds do break through the mountains and the spectacle of

clouds kissing Himalayan peaks in the backdrop of the barren splendour of Ladakh is a sight to

behold.

North India

The most interesting place to visit during your monsoon vacations in India is the Valley of

Flowers National Park, which is located in state of Uttarakhand. It is open from the months of

April to October. It is best to visit during monsoon as the flowers are in full bloom. However,

before July you will not find any blossomed flowers, so try to make your plans accordingly.

4. Write short notes on

a) Natural hazards

A natural hazard is a naturally occurring event that might have a negative effect on people or

the environment. Natural hazard events can be grouped into two broad categories. Geophysical

hazards encompass geological and meteorological phenomena such as earthquakes, coastal

erosion, volcanic eruption, cyclonic storms, and drought. Biological hazards can refer to a

diverse array of disease and infestation. Other natural hazards such as floods and wildfires can

result from a combination of geological, hydrological, and climatic factors.

Many geophysical hazards are interrelated; for example, submarine earthquakes can cause

tsunamis, and hurricanes can lead to coastal flooding and erosion. It is possible that some natural

hazards are intertemporally correlated as well. A concrete example of the division between a

natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster,

whereas living on a fault line is a hazard.

1 Geological hazards

1.1 Avalanche

1.2 Earthquake

1.3 Coastal erosion

1.4 Lahar

1.5 Landslide

1.6 Sinkholes

1.7 Volcanic eruption

2 Meteorological hazards

2.1 Blizzard

2.2 Drought

2.3 Hailstorm

2.4 Heat wave

2.5 Cyclonic storm

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2.6 Ice storm

2.7 Tornado

2.8 Climate change

2.9 Geomagnetic storm

2.10 Water spout

3 Flood

4 Wildfire

5 Disease

b) Globalization and Tourism

The current global recession is impacting the tourist industry worldwide and few places are

immune. Countries, such as the UAE, which boasted about its immunity in April 2008, saw massive lay-offs in construction in its capital Dubai, only a few months later due to fewer tourist dollars. While international travel is down, local and regional travel is doing relatively better as

people decide to travel closer to home.

Tourism is one of the largest industries worldwide, accounting for ten percent of the world GDP ($7-8 trillion) and ten percent of the US GDP ($1.2 trillion dollars). For many countries, such as

the Bahamas and other island economies, it is the main source of income and employment. About 240 million people worldwide are employed in travel and tourism.1

This analysis will address the impacts of tourism on culture, development, and the environment and will provide and in-depth case study of the impact tourism on the Polar Regions.

5. Describe the most serious manmade hazards in India. In what ways they influence /are

influenced by the tourism activities.

The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in

India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster.

It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL)

pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl

isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way into and around the

shanty towns located near the plant.

Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of

Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. A government

affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial

injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Others estimate

that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related

diseases.

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The cause of the disaster remains under debate. The Indian government and local activists argue

that slack management and deferred maintenance created a situation where routine pipe

maintenance caused a backflow of water into a MIC tank triggering the disaster. Union Carbide

Corporation (UCC) contends water entered the tank through an act of sabotage.

The owner of the factory, UCIL, was majority owned by UCC, with Indian Government-

controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. In 1989, UCC paid $470m

($907m in 2014 dollars) to settle litigation stemming from the disaster. In 1994, UCC sold its

stake in UCIL to Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL), which subsequently merged with

McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. Eveready ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it terminated its

99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state government of Madhya Pradesh.

Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in 2001, seventeen years after the disaster.

Civil and criminal cases were filed in the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC and

Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In June 2010, seven ex-employees,

including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence

and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum

punishment allowed by Indian law. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died

before the judgement was passed. Anderson died on September 29, 2014.

6. What consumption patterns and other features of your lifestyle directly add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere? Which, if any, of those things would you be willing to give up to slow projected

global warming and reduce other forms of air pollution?

7. What consumption patterns and other features of your lifestyle directly and indirectly add ozone-

depleting chemicals to the atmosphere? Which, if any, of those would you be willing to give up to

slow ozone depletion?

8. Should the injection of hazardous wastes into deep underground wells be banned? Explain. What

would you do with these wastes?

Unit 4

1. You are entrusted with the task of performing EIA of expanding tourism activities in

remote islands with tribal communities. Discuss in detail the methodologies you would

follow.

The sustainability of tourism development can be further strengthened by more extensive and

effective use of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a requirement placed on developers.

EIA provides an internationally recognized and structured approach to obtaining and evaluating

environmental information about the potential impacts of a physical development; the EIA is

then used in decision-making in the development process.

It is particularly useful as an adjunct to the process of granting planning permission for new

development, and may be required of a potential developer in order to aid decision making. A

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particular strength of EIAs is the requirement to account for all stages and processes of a

proposed development, including upstream and downstream impacts. There is also a requirement

to consider alternative proposals that may lead to less harmful impact or provide greater

opportunity for benefit.

In many countries, use of EIA is required by law in situations where proposed development-

related actions are expected to be environmentally damaging, but its application to tourism varies

around the world. There is a lack of consistency in the selection of developments for which

specific EIA studies are required. Whether or not an EIA is required is likely to depend on the

size and nature of the project, the sensitivity of the location in which it is proposed, and the

perceived risk to the environment. Small scale projects are not included in most EIA systems

although their cumulative impacts may be significant over time.

The close relationship between social and environmental systems makes it imperative that social

impacts are identified, predicted and evaluated in conjunction with biophysical impacts. EIAs are

increasingly including prediction and evaluation of social, economic and health impacts as well

as environmental impacts. Emerging thinking and practice in the application of EIA is likely to

focus mainly on adapting and using EIA in conjunction with other tools as a means of testing

development proposals against pre-determined sustainability criteria.

Recommendations for improving EIA processes include:

• Clarifying the screening process that determines whether EIAs are required. The provision for

EIA should be based on legislation which is clear and explicit as to the nature and scope of

application and the type of approach to be taken.

• Reviewing how EIAs are applied to tourism development and whether coverage should be

extended. At present it is unlikely that an EIA will be required. Generally for all tourism

projects, but the kinds of project and location for which they are required should be clear to

developers.

• Providing helpful guidelines, relevant to tourism, on what is required in the EIA.

• Avoiding duplication or uncertainty between the agencies involved, and providing a swift

response, in order to prevent projects that do not comply from proceeding without a decision.

• Establishing a process to track compliance with any management and mitigation measures

proposed in the EIA and, where necessary, providing enforcement action.

2. Write short notes on

a) Environmental Management Plans (EMP):

An EMP for each of the contract packages detailing the measures to be taken for the

implementation of the various measures proposed. This includes the monitoring plan and gives

details of the resources budgeted and the implementation arrangements being taken up in

continuation of the TNHP, the same EA methodology has been adopted for the GTRP as well.

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However, As a learning from the experiences from, in addition to the EA process as adopted for

TNHP, a further in-depth study of the following issues has been carried out as part of the GTRP:

Addressal of direct and induced impacts on the various environmental components;

Specific designs for the mitigation measures provided;

Site specific enhancement designs for elements along the corridor, including cultural

properties, water bodies, bus stops etc;

Redevelopment of borrow areas;

Prediction of impacts due to the project on air I noise, and provision measures; Of

mitigation

Traffic management plans during construction; and

Monitoring mechanisms and indicators during construction and operation periods.

b) Indicators

An indicator is something that points to an issue or condition. Its purpose is to show you how well a

system is working. If there is a problem, an indicator can help you determine what direction to take to address the issue. Indicators are as varied as the types of systems they monitor.

However, there are certain characteristics that effective indicators have in common:

• They are relevant; they show you something about the system that you need to know. E.g. % soil vegetal cover for erosion rates

• They are easy to understand, even by people who are not experts. E.g. % native plant species (both relative and absolute densities)

• They are reliable; you can trust the information that the indicator is providing. E.g. reliability is

preferred to precision i.e. a reliable estimate of soil erosion is preferable to a cumbersome precise

measurement of the same

• Lastly, effective indicators are based on accessible data; the information is available or can be

gathered while there is still time to act.

Notable among the Ecological/ Environmental indicators are: • Vegetative composition, % vegetation cover and diversity,

• Indicators of pollution and disturbance

• % Treatment of wastes generated

• Invasion of exotic species

• Frequency and scale of Human- wildlife conflicts

• Bio-diversity of birds, butterflies and other flagship species.

The following Social/Economic indicators are very important: • Changes in the visitors‘ frequency of visits/stay duration

• Improvements in basic infra- structural facilities

• The number, % and level of local tour employees

• The relative distribution of benefits among community members

• Disposable income /debt burden and changes in life-style of the local communities,

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3. Discuss the various methods of EIA using a highway construction in a coastal area.

The following is an example of how to perform EIA for the construction of a highway. This

necessarily involves the following impacts:

i. E.ls related to aesthetics

ii. Circulation impacts

iii. Air quality impacts

iv. Water quality impacts

v. Noise impacts

vi. Impacts on wildlife

vii. Socio-economic Impacts

i. Els related to aesthetics:

The following are some of the important Els related to aesthetics:

• Blocking view lines along visual corridors, especially in valleys and beaches etc.

‗visualpollution‘ or ‗visual blight‘ E.g. Kodaikanal Kovalam (Tamil Nadu), (Kerela).

• Unattractive contrast between existing natural flora and revegetated / landscaped areas (if

improperly done)/ between natural landscapes and engineering features of the highways /

between the existing development patterns (urban, rural, coastal, hill etc.) and the highways

features.

ii. Circulation impacts

The circulation impacts will include:

• Blocking / impairing access along existing streets / paths so as to make inaccessible some vital

areas - eg. Irrigation, grazing, NTFP collection areas, recreation areas

• Physical separation of a habitat e.g. infra structural facilities for recreation and wildlife

corridors

• providing access to previously inaccessible areas, bringing market forces into the livelihoods of

the local communities - loss of incentives for local sustainable exploitation

• increasing traffic and traveling - causing an increased demand for travel related services -

trampling, degradation and pollution

iii. Air quality impacts

This will include Increase in the levels of dust / particulate matter (gases, smog, fumes and

odours) - their impacts on plants, animals (including man) and structures.

iv. Water quality impacts Water quality impacts will include the following:

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• Turbidity and silting of adjacent streams‖ of reservoirs due to erosion during construction /

maintenance operations; this will reduce the capacity, shorten the life of the aquatic water bodies

and cause damage to the biota and structures.

• Highway run off contamination - containing oil, petrol, tar, diesel, pesticides, fertilizers, animal

(Including human) wastes with impacts on water, land, flora and fauna.

Due to the closer and inseparable linkages between soil, vegetation and water resources, any

impact on one component would affect the other 2 components. Intensive road building activities

in mountain watersheds would disrupt the hydrology by removing the soil vegetal cover - the

vital link for conserving soil and water resource in such fragile ecosystems.

v. Noise impacts

Noise is created by the vehicles on the highways (buses, cars, vans, jeeps, Lorries and other four

wheelers and two wheelers). Noise will affect the behavior of animals and in severe cases can

cause physiological disorders. The impacts of noise seriously affect tourism. This is because of

the following factors:

• Possible recreational activities require quiet and serene conditions and

• There are areas sensitive to noise- hotels, hospitals, residences, schools and temples.

vi. Impacts on wildlife

This will include:

• Degradation/complete loss of wildlife habitats by habitat fragmentation and overexploitation by

the ‗settlers‘

• Physical degradation / disturbance of wildlife; their behavior, distribution and migration

patterns; displacement of wildlife.

Due to these factors, the feeding, breeding and nursery grounds are reduced, forcing the wild life

to raid cultivated crops and domesticated live-stocks; sometimes, there are instances of killing

and eating humans from the adjoining human settlements. This leads to ‗Human-wildlife

conflicts‘ and defeats the very purpose of conserving Biodiversity. We have come to realize that

we cannot save wildlife by simply preventing their poaching; we have to provide adequate

habitat for them to survive and reproduce.

vii. Socio-economic Impacts

This will include;

• Disturbance/displacement of forest and agricultural land uses, due to pressures from residential,

commercial, and industrial land uses; this raises many equity issues

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• Removal of structures /sites of aesthetic beauty (scenic/ historical / architectural importance)

• Loss of sites for potential use which may have more benefits in future

• Lower compensations and delay in payments; loss of local livelihoods

• Severance of interpersonal ties of displaced residents to the former neighborhood/ community.

4. Are you satisfied with the way in which EIAS are performed in our country? What

improvements you would suggest for undertaking EIA of tourism projects in protected

areas?

The environmental impact assessment for each of the project packages employed a reiterative

approach in which environmental issues have been identified in successive levels of detail and

specificity at each step in the process. Incorporation of feedback from the various stakeholders as

well as ‗public hearings‘ and analyzing their valuable inputs were essential features of this

methodology.

The following were the stages of environmental impact assessment of the project:

Preliminary Environmental and Social Screening (PESS):

• A PESS study of each of the Consultancy packages had been carried out as part of the

feasibility study, to categorise the corridor into sections based on environmental and social

sensitivity, and to screen significant environmental and social issues that needed to be addressed.

• Documentation of Baseline Conditions: The potentially affected area (PIA) was defined and the

baseline conditions were documented.

Assessment of Potential Impacts:

• Potential significant impacts were identified on the basis of an analytical review of baseline

data.

• Integration of Environmental Assessments in the Design Process: The design and decision-

making process integrated environmental and resettlement and rehabilitation issues and

prompted the early identification of appropriate actions, as shifts in alignments based on

awareness of the locations of cultural resources.

Assessment of Alternatives:

Alterative were continuously assessed throughout the process. A more formal assessment was

also undertaken as a part of the environmental assessment process, including the assessment of

the ‗No Action'.

Alternative, Mitigation and Enhancement Measures:

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Positive actions to not only avoid adverse impacts, but to capitalize on opportunities to correct

environmental degradation or improve environmental conditions were determined. The

mitigation measures would be directed towards the restoration of the dynamic balance of nature.

Community Consultation:

Consultations with concerned officials, agencies and potentially affected persons continued

through the process and will continue as the project proceeds. The issues raised by the

communities and the various stakeholders were incorporated, as far as possible, in the design and

construction/operation plan of the project highway.

Unit 5

1. Define conservation from tourism perspective and discuss its relevance for evolving

responsible tourism strategies for remote mountain ecosystems with pristine ecosystems

and cultures.

Conservation is the preservation, management and/or wise use of Biodiversity and natural

resources so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit for the present generations while

maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. Conservation

depends on the continued health and productivity of local ecosystems. Thus, conservation

embraces preservation, maintenance, sustainable utilization and restoration, and enhancement of

the natural environment. Hence, conservation problems are generally problems of exploitation

that involve careful planning implementation and monitoring, and as such are important for

promoting sustainable tourism strategies.

The following are the basic strategies that could be adopted for the conservation of Biological

diversity and natural resources, so that tourism activities/experiences can be enhanced:

Promote the rehabilitation and restoration of damaged ecosystems and the recovery of threatened

and endangered species by site specific strategies;

• Analyse the potentials and constraints for augmentation (increasing the supply - e.g.

afforestation in wastelands), substitution (substituting scarcer natural resources with abundant

ones- e.g. replace irewood with biogas, if needed) and conservation (reducing the wasteful use of

resources- e.g. improved wood stoves) of natural resources for long term sustainable

development

• Improve awareness, training and interpretation/demonstration programmes on best practice

case studies and field visits by horizontal transfer of appropriate technologies for conservation

• Actively involve the Iocal communities and other Stake- holders in evolving local, regional and

national strategies for conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological

resources for achieving livelihood/food/energy security with an analysis of relevant costs and

benefits, with particular reference to socio- economic aspects;

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• Evolve community based/run micro-enterprises using the local BD/natural resources such as

Eco-tourism so that they generate benefits (economic, social, and/or environmental) for a

community of stakeholders both in the short run and, with a high probability, in the long run.

• Integrate conservation and development (policies, legislation, implementation, participation

etc) based on a gender balanced approach

• Integrate the local strategies for the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use

of biological resources into national development policies, strategies and/or action plans

• Take appropriate measures for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from research

and development and use of biological and genetic resources, including biotechnology, between

the sources of those resources and those who use them;

• Recognize and foster the traditional methods and the knowledge of indigenous people and their

communities, emphasizing the particular role of women, relevant to the conservation of

biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological resources, and ensure the opportunity

for the participation of those groups in the economic and commercial benefits derived from the

use of such traditional methods and knowledge;

• Evolve appropriate packages of incentives (e.g. subsidies, compensations, tax holidays etc.) and

disincentives (e.g. fines, taxes etc.) for encouraging all participants to adapt conservation

strategies

Despite our sincere efforts over the past 20 years, the loss of the world's biological diversity, and

degradation of vital natural resources such as soil, air and water, mainly from habitat destruction,

over-harvesting, pollution and the inappropriate introduction of foreign plants and animals, has

continued. Urgent and decisive action is needed to conserve and maintain the species and

ecosystems, with a view to their sustainable management. This is particularly true for the tourism

sector as it has the onerous responsibility to conserve and rationally utilize the species, habitats,

natural resources and ecosystems. This goal cannot be achieved without basic guidelines for

conservation that would include the elements of ethics, codes and conduct for various

stakeholders.

2. Write short notes on

a) Tourism codes and conducts

The principle of a Global Code of Ethics for tourism was evolved in the session of the

Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York in April 1999. The following are

the ten principles (referred to as articles in the report) that were to be understood and respected:

• Tourism's contribution to mutual understanding and respect between peoples and societies -

evolving a symbiotic relationship between hosts (the local communities) and the guests (the

tourists)

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• Tourism as a vehicle for individual and collective fulfillment - of needs and aspirations

• Tourism, a factor of sustainable development - for local communities and the tourism sector

• Tourism, a user of the cultural heritage of mankind and contributor to its enhancement

• Tourism, a beneficial activity for host countries and communities

• Obligations of stakeholders in tourism development that include conservation and rational

utilization of biodiversity and natural resources

• Right to tourism-for both local and international tourists

• Liberty of tourist movements – focusing on the principles of democracy, transparency and

equity

• Rights of the workers and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry- for empowerment

• Participatory implementation mechanisms

b) Conservation and tourism

Nature conservation and tourism in the contemporary sense date from the first half of the

nineteenth century and, to a large extent, have developed parallel to one another. Their common

root was the ideology of romanticism with its new look at wild nature, no longer regarded as

sinister and repellent. Instead, nature became a value in itself and a quest for contact with it

became one of the factors that was responsible for development of tourism.

Society's attitude towards historical monuments evolved in a similar way. During the period of

romanticism, people acknowledged the value of relics of the past and started to set up museums.

The adjective "gothic" lost its pejorative meaning while "monument-discovering" was followed

by a natural need to explore them, thus giving a second boost to the development of tourism.

There was also feedback; the people who enjoyed tourism were finding new, interesting cultural

and natural objects in the course of their wanderings. By recording various threats, in many cases

they became the first defenders of nature and culture.

In the history of many European and North American countries, numerous examples can be

found of efforts by tourist organizations as a whole as well as those by their members to protect

the natural and cultural heritage.

At the end of the nineteenth century, however, there began to be signs that a rapidly developing

tourism industry, treated as a part of the economy, might threaten nature and culture. In 1913,

Prof. Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski, a lawyer, alpinist and one of the most active nature protectors,

wrote in his prophetic work Culture and Nature: "Some people, moved by the beauty of nature,

wanted to share their impressions with others and started to facilitate access to it by building

roads, trails and shelters. A docile public understood that nature must be beautiful, for the spirit

of the epoch demanded it.... Seriously, modern man needs some comfort, so shelters were

replaced by hotels which the catering and alcoholic beverage business eagerly supported. Would

this not be in the interest of a superior level of excellence, since the public's love of nature would

contribute to the national wealth? So, the trails were equipped with railings and guide-posts,

41

narrow paths were turned into roads and, eventually, engineering skill achieved a miracle: in the

manner of Herostratus, it violated mountains by building railways up to their summits."

Unfortunately, subsequent development confirmed the accuracy of this diagnosis, and not only in

mountain regions. The next decades were dominated by economic and consumer interests that

disregarded the consequent environmental devastation. A certain disillusionment came about by

the end of the 1960s, a period that can be recognized as a turning-point for the awakening of

ecological consciousness on a global scale. People started to look for ways of reconciling

economic development with ecological security, a quest which, in a theoretical sense, has been

crowned with the World Conservation Strategy.

In terms of tourism, this change in emphasis was possible because, alongside the vast

commercial tourist industry, there had continued a strong trend of traditional nature tourism,

based on the knowledge, joy and satisfaction resulting from contacts with nature, historical

monuments and people of different cultures -a form of tourism where physical effort is not

viewed as a nuisance but as a source of satisfaction, that wonderful feeling that occurs on the top

of a mountain after long hours of climbing. Tourist adventures can be experienced either alone or

with companions. In the latter case, there is an additional humanistic aspect: the consciousness of

a close relationship with another person, a deep common emotion.

Essentially, therefore, ecotourism is not a new phenomenon. Rather, it is a return to roots and the

rediscovery of values that have been covered with concrete and drowned by the noise of cars.

3. Discuss the global code of ethics and discuss the potentials and constraints for adapting

the same in the Indian context.

The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET) is a comprehensive set of principles whose

purpose is to guide stakeholders in tourism development: central and local governments, local

communities, the tourism industry and its professionals, as well as visitors, both international and

domestic.

The Code was called for in a resolution of the UNWTO General Assembly meeting in Istanbul in

1997. Over the following two years, a special committee for the preparation of the Global Code

of Ethics was formed and a draft document was prepared by the Secretary-General and the legal

adviser to UNWTO in consultation with UNWTO Business Council, UNWTO's Regional

Commissions, and the UNWTO .

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development meeting in New York in April,

1999 endorsed the concept of the Code and requested UNWTO to seek further input from the

private sector, non-governmental organizations and labour organizations. Written comments on

the code were received from more than 70 UNWTO Member States and other entities. The

resulting 10 point Global Code of Ethics for Tourism - the culmination of an extensive

consultative process- was approved unanimously by the UNWTO General Assembly meeting in

Santiago in October 1999. Executive Council.

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1. The public and private stakeholders in tourism development should cooperate in the

implementation of these principles and monitor their effective application;

2. The stakeholders in tourism development should recognize the role of international

institutions, among which the World Tourism Organization ranks first, and non- governmental

organizations with competence in the field of tourism promotion and development, the protection

of human rights, the environment or health, with respect for the general principles of

international law;

3. The same stakeholders should demonstrate their intention to refer any disputes concerning the

application or interpretation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism for conciliation to an

impartial third body known as the World Committee on Tourism Ethics.

4. Calls upon the stakeholders in tourism development - national, regional and local tourism

administrations, tourism enterprises, business associations, workers in the sector and tourism

bodies - the host communities and the tourists themselves to model their conduct on the

principles embodied in this Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and to implement them in good

faith. 97

5. Decides that the procedures for implementing the principles embodied in the Code will, where

necessary, be subject to guidelines for application, prepared by the World Committee on

Tourism Ethics, submitted to the Executive Council of WTO, adopted by the General Assembly

and periodically reviewed and adjusted in the same conditions;

4. Write short notes on

a) Tourism and Biodiversity conservation

Despite mounting efforts over the past 20 years, the loss of the world's biological diversity,

mainly from habitat destruction, over-harvesting, pollution and the inappropriate introduction of

foreign plants and animals, has continued. Biological resources constitute a capital asset with

great potential for yielding sustainable benefits. Urgent and decisive action is needed to conserve

and maintain genes, species and ecosystems, with a view to the sustainable management and use

of biological resources. Capacities for the assessment, study and systematic observation and

evaluation of biodiversity need to be reinforced at national and international levels. Effective

national action and international cooperation is required for the in situ (on site) protection of

ecosystems, for the ex situ (off site) conservation of biological and genetic resources and for the

enhancement of ecosystem functions. The participation and support of local communities are

elements essential to the success of such an approach.

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b) NRM

Natural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land,

water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of

life for both present and future generations (stewardship).

Natural resource management deals with managing the way in which people and natural

landscapes interact. It brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity

conservation, and the future sustainability of industries like agriculture, mining, tourism,

fisheries and forestry. It recognises that people and their livelihoods rely on the health and

productivity of our landscapes, and their actions as stewards of the land play a critical role in

maintaining this health and productivity.

Natural resource management specifically focuses on a scientific and technical understanding of

resources and ecology and the life-supporting capacity of those resources. Environmental

management is also similar to natural resource management. In academic contexts, the sociology

of natural resources is closely related to, but distinct from, natural resource management.

UNIT 6

i. Explain why you agree or disagree with the following propositions (with examples

wherever necessary):

◦ Tourism is a smokeless industry in third world countries

In the 1960‘s, the tourism industry drew less attention as both scientific and media interests

heightened about the effects of human activity on the environment and the only mention of

tourism around that time was in the circumstances of a ‗smokeless industry‘ (Holden, 2005). The

‗smokeless industry‘ was appreciated by viewing the tourism industry in an eco-friendlier

manner in terms of acknowledging mountainous regions, wildlife conservations etcetera. Even

though there was an appraisal of the tourism industry being perceived a smokeless industry, it

still raised some criticism from critics who mentioned that viewing the tourism sector from a

wholly ecologic point of view is highly detrimental for the growth and development that the

tourism industry attracts (Holden, 2005). The relationship between tourism and the environment

is undoubtedly reciprocated and not narrow in a sense that tourism relies on the environment as it

uses its natural resources which can have a positive or negative impact on the environment.

However, in the same way, while the tourism industry may affect the environment, altercation in

the environment may also affect or influence the tourism industry (Holden, 2005). Tourism and

the environment have a complex relationship and several activities like the airports, roads and

tourism facilities including resorts, theme parks, hoteliers and so on can bring about adverse

environmental issues. Furthermore, not only does the tourism industry affect the environment in

a negative way but also some positive impacts evolve as tourism seeks to contribute to

environmental protection and conservation (UNWTO, 2013).

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◦ there is unlimited potential for tourism development in third world countries

Tourism is a vital part of the global economy. Generating roughly $1 trillion in global receipts in

2008 (up 1.8 percent from 2007), international tourism ranked as the fourth-largest industry in

the world, after fuels, chemicals, and automotive products.

The breadth of international travel also has greatly expanded in recent years to encompass the

developing world. In 1950 just fifteen destinations—primarily European—accounted for 98

percent of all international arrivals. By 2007 that figure had fallen to 57 percent.

Once essentially excluded from the tourism industry, the developing world has now

become its major growth area. Tourism is a key foreign exchange earner for 83 percent of

developing countries and the leading export earner for one-third of the world‘s poorest

countries.

For the world‘s forty poorest countries, tourism is the second-most important source of

foreign exchange after oil.

The economic might of the tourist industry has helped transform societies, often for the

better. Tourism has several advantages over other industries:

It is consumed at the point of production so that it directly benefits the communities that

provide the goods.

It enables communities that are poor in material wealth but rich in culture, history, and

heri tage to use their unique characteristics as an income-generating comparative

advantage.

It creates networks of different operations, from hotels and restaurants to adventure sports

providers and food suppliers. This enables tourist centers to form complex and varied

supply chains of goods and services, supporting a versatile labor market with a variety of

jobs for tour guides, translators, cooks, cleaners, drivers, hotel managers, and other

service sector workers. Many tourism jobs are flexible or seasonal and can be taken on in

parallel with existing occupations, such as farming.

It tends to encourage the development of multiple-use infrastructure that benefits the host

community, including roads, health care facilities, and sports centers, in addition to the

hotels and high-end restaurants that cater to foreign visitors.

◦ Participation of local communities is not required for tourism planning

ii. Write short notes on

Tourism and Sustainable development

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNCED), the Rio Earth

Summit, identified Travel & Tourism as one of the key sectors of the economy which could

make a positive contribution to achieving sustainable development. The Earth Summit lead to the

adoption of Agenda 21, a comprehensive program of action adopted by 182 governments to

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provide a global blueprint for achieving sustainable development. Travel & Tourism is the first

industry sector to have launched an industry-specific action plan based on Agenda 21

Travel & Tourism is able to contribute to development which is economically, ecologically and

socially sustainable, because it:

• has less impact on natural resources and the environment than most other industries;

• is based on enjoyment and appreciation of local culture, built heritage, and natural

environment, as such that the industry has a direct and powerful motivation to protect these

assets;

• can play a positive part in increasing consumer commitment to sustainable development

principles through its unparalleled consumer distribution channels; and

• provides an economic incentive to conserve natural environments and habitats which might

otherwise be allocated to more environmentally damaging land uses, thereby, helping to maintain

bio-diversity.

There are numerous good examples of where Travel & Tourism is acting as a catalyst for

conservation and improvement of the environment and maintenance of local diversity and

culture.

Equity issues and tourism development

Equity is a key principle of sustainable tourism that addresses fairness in access, use, and

distribution of goods and benefits from tourism development, to meet the needs of both current

and future generations. Initiated by the United Nations, the World Commission on Environment

and Development (commonly referred to as the Brundtland Commission), addressed the issue of

equity in its influential report on sustainable development, Our Common Future (WCED 1987).

It entails not only inter- and intra-generational equity in development but also equity between the

North and the South. Acknowledging historic inequalities in development and resource use

between the Western world and the lesser developed nations, the commission called for the

―poor to get the fair share of the resources required to sustain growth‖ and their effective

participation in decision-making processes so they can enforce their common interest.

iii. Discuss the basic guide lines for sustainable tourism in a remote island.

Eco development is a part of the Environment and Development activities of UNEP by which it

promotes sustainable management strategies for watersheds, Forests, grasslands, deserts, coastal

zones etc throughout the world. Sustainable Tourism can be visualized as an integrating thread in

such situations and the resultant product is Eco development tourism. It is community-centered

and has the following major characteristics:

• The community plays a key role in the planning and decision-making of tourism activities in

their area.

• It is biased towards the development of natural sites and habitats in accordance with local and

indigenous culture and values.

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• It advocates community control and management of natural resources. It helps build

community capacity to manage the development of its area.

• It involves setting up community organizations and Community owned tourism enterprises,

training leaders and community specialists, as well as developing the appropriate Eco-

technologies required to ensure sound management of destination areas/ ecosystems.

• It helps to create development funds to support economic, social and environmental projects of

community partners.

• The natural environment is the base of development of a community. It is also a vital base of

tourism. Thus it is oriented towards ecological protection and biodiversity conservation. It

recognizes the carrying capacity of each site and of the community. It is sensitive to visitor

impact and to the limits of acceptable change of community habitats.

• It promotes increased appreciation of cultural diversity.

Village stays and immersion activities provide opportunities for visitors to deepen their

understanding of the host's social and development milieu that helps fostering mutual

interdependence and respect. Thus it promotes the development of tourism infrastructure

facilities that are in harmonious integration with the landscape, indigenous architecture, living

matter, technology, people and their culture rather than towards the creation and promotion of

artificial tourist enclaves such as golf courses and mega-resorts.

iv. Define integrated energy planning. Discuss its importance in the promotion of sustainable

tourism.

Integrated Energy Planning (IEP) means the analysis of all energy issues within a unified policy

framework in order to arrive at a set of nationally optimal energy solutions over the long term

(say, fifteen to twenty years). One of the most crucial outcomes of IEP has been the en ergy

master plan (EMP).

The scope of IEP may be clarified by examining the complex relationships between the energy

sector and the rest of the economy. At the highest and most aggregate level, it should be clearly

recognized that the energy sector is a part of the whole economy. The second level of IEP treats

the energy sector as a separate entity composed of subsectors such as electricity, petroleum

products and so on. The third and most disaggregate level relates to planning within each of the

energy subsectors.

A planning process should be dynamic and continuous, with all data; assumptions and analyses

being constantly revised using the most recent information, and state of the art analytical tools.

The IEP procedure itself may be broken down into the following steps: ocioeconomic

background and national objectives; energy demand analysis; energy supply analysis; energy

balance; policy formulation and impact analysis. It should be noted that these divisions are

conceptual, and in practice there will be considerable overlap among them. In general two

modeling approaches have been used in IEP. The top-down modeling approach uses generalized

macroeconomic models and focus on the economy at large.

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A key assumption underlying many top-down analyses is that the economy is in equilibrium. The

bottom-up approaches focus on the energy sector alone. They are based on detailed engineering–

economic studies of energy supply and end-use technologies, and on micro-economic studies of

end-use markets.

It is now clear that development, in order to be sustained over a long period of time, must not

destroy the resources on which it depends. The objective of sustainable development is therefore

not only economic growth: it is also social development, the eradication of poverty,

improvement of health, conservation of natural resources, environmental protection, and a better

quality of life. In the field of energy, sustainability, rather than physical scarcity of resources, has

become the main driver for change. Although it is possible in principle to give a precise

definition of ―sustainable energy‖ (Daly, 1991), it is apparent that a transition to a fully

sustainable system cannot be achieved in the short or medium term; moreover each individual

country should respect the conditions of sustainability globally, and not necessarily. This is

especially true for the poorest developing countries; which contribute very little to global

environmental problems and climate change but desperately need energy services for survival

and sustainable development. Sustainable development is made up of three equally important

factors: economic development, social development, and protection of the environment.

Therefore, the guidelines to creating sustainable energy systems are quite clear: improve

efficiency of energy production and use; and propmte renewable sources of energy.

v. What are the constraints for implementing sustainable development strategies in our

country? How can we overcome them?

vi. Discuss the meaning of sustainability from tourism point of view.

Sustainability has emerged as an umbrella concept, embracing many interconnected issues of

environment and development. However, there are two distinct aspects viz. the long- term and

different goal of sustainability and the process by which we might move somewhat closer to the

goal (SD). Thus, the two are not the same.

The term sustainability is derived from the Latin root -Sustainer (English translation Sustain) that

means to hold up i.e. To maintain or prolong the productive use of resources and the integrity of

environment. Only recently the concept of sustainability came into popular usage. There are

many definitions for sustainability. Notable among them are:

A process or state that can be maintained indefinitely (IUCN, 1991) -appears to be a dictionary

definition Ways of managing natural resources that do not create ecological debts by

overexploiting the carrying and productive capacities of the earth (Pronk and Haq, 1992) - not

yet a complete definition.

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Maintenance of the total natural capital sustainably at or above the current level as a minimum

necessary condition- offers an operational specification of at least one element of sustainability,

sustainability is a dynamic concept.

However, still the question. How the term sustainability is to be defined and measured is not yet

clear. Different disciplines offer their own varying interpretations of sustainability. For instance,

the Economists emphasize the maintenance and improvement of the living standards of humans

while, ecologists and other scientists broadened the meaning to express concerns about

preserving the adaptability and function of entire Ecological and Bio physical systems;

Geographers and Anthropologists focus on the viability of Socio cultural systems. Under these

circumstances, it is easier to visualize/define non-sustainability than sustainability! In an absolute

sense, the word ‗sustainable' has no time horizon - going on forever. Because nothing goes on

forever, however, nothing is absolutely sustainable. To maintain modern high-tech civilizations

and present day population levels, production systems must be modified and subsidized. How far

they are going to be sustainable is an open question.

The following are some of the dimensions of sustainability:

• Ecological/Environmental sustainability - systems with no artificial energy, nutrient and water

supply eg. Naturally occurring ecosystems like tropical rain forests or human managed systems

like traditional indigenous/native fisheries / farming systems. However, they are impossible for

advanced societies without Socio economic change.

• Economic sustainability-does not bother about Intra and intergenerational equity; the economy

is maintained by huge subsidies/price structures and there are other ethical issues - eg. "economic

gain‖ by cultivating/ marketing cocaine, ganja etc. Vs ethics.

• Technological sustainability–artifact of academic research institutions, but receive lot of

publicity; it is a system that can remain productive as long as unlimited funds are available to

support the production technology-eg. High-tech green revolution agriculture (GRA) of

agricultural experimental stations (however, such ideal conditions do not occur‖ beyond the

bounds of experimental stations and hence, there is always a yield gap between them and the

local farms)

• Social sustainability – Political & cultural components

• Bio physical sustainability–Dynamic process of natural ecosystems can become unstable as a

result of stresses imposed by human activities; these processes are governed by the laws of

thermodynamics.

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vii. Compare and contrast different property use regimes. Give suitable examples for each

category.

‗Property is a claim to a benefit / income stream, and a ‗property right 'is a claim to a benefit

stream that some higher body (usually the State) will agree to protect through the assignment of

duty to others who may covet or somehow interfere with the benefit stream. Thus, property is a

triadic social relation involving benefit streams, right holders and duty bearers (rights have no

meaning without correlated duties).

In the Open Access Resources (OAR), there are no property rights; unrestricted, uncontrolled

entry/ access/exploitation are observed and thus there is no incentive for sustainable management

of the commons; hence, ‗the tragedy of the commons‘ is inevitable. But OAR is not a Common

Pool Resource (CPR) or Common Property Resource (CPRr). ―Every bodys‖ property is

nobody's property‖ (sometimes, controlled exploitation may be possible). E.g. Coastal fisheries.

Private property (PPR) is owned / held by individual company / corporation / cooperative society

which have exclusive legal rights to use, sell, manage etc ; PPr rights rests on three basic

concepts - retentability (right to use), transferability and exclusivity. E.g. Farm lands.

In most of the third world countries, colonized by the west, the history of natural resource

ownership followed a transition from CPRrs to Government Property Resources (GPRs) or State

Property Resources (SPRs) E.g. Reserve forests; the CPRrs, once under the exclusive control of

the original natives and the settlers were usurped by the western colonizers; sometimes, land

ceiling acts and development projects‘ were used as excuses to transfer rights from individuals /

community to the State; sometimes by long term lease the GPR are brought under the control of

the private owners. More than two thirds of world's fisheries are also under State property;

sometimes, individual species, wherever they are found are also State property e.g. Sandalwood

trees. Table presents some distinguishing characteristics of property regimes.

S.

N.

CHARACTERISTICS TYPES OF RESOURCES

OAR PPR CPR CPRr

1 Property rights are well defined NO YES YES/NO YES

2 User/s group/s is/ are identifiable

NO YES YES YES

3 Resource is accessible to every body

YES NO YES NO

4 Resource is used in common YES NO YES YES

5 Rules, regulation & Conventions governing the use of resource exist

NO YES YES/NO YES

6 Exclusion of free riders difficult YES NO N.A. YES

7 Use of resource is subtractible YES YES YES YES

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viii. Define common property resources. How would you differentiate them from common?

The Common Property Resources (CPRrs) are subject to individual use but not to individual

possession; individuals have independent rights to use; CPRrs are non-exclusive resources in

which a group of people have coequal use rights on resources collectively owned and managed

by a well-defined group of users. They are usually not viewed as a commodity that can be sold in

the market but rather as an inheritance that should be passed on to future generations (however,

the products can be sold). CPRrs can be visualized at local, regional, national and global levels);

oceans, Polar Regions, air / atmosphere beyond the jurisdiction of countries, outer Space can be

considered as global commons.

Burning questions for managing the global commons are:

How can we reduce the negative impacts of development to acceptable limits?

How can we share / distribute the costs / benefits in exploiting the global CPRrs?

How can we reduce the Trans boundary conflicts in using the global CPRrs?

The following table compares and contrasts the three major property regimes with

perticular reference to accessibility and control systems for extraction

S No Parameter Property regimes

Private property Common ownership/ Closed access (res communes )

Open access (res nullius)

State Property (res publica)

1 Access or right to extract

Owners/occupiers Group members Any one State

2 Limitation on level of extraction

Owners decision Group rules, exclusion Unlimited Legislation

Common pool resources share two important characteristics: excludability and subtractability.

The first attribute - difficulty of st exclusion - arises from several factors including the cost of

parceling or fencing the resource and the co of designing and enforcing property rights to

control access to the resource. The second attribute - subtractability - creates rivalry between

different users. The resource units (e.g. bundles of firewood or fodder) that one user extracts

from a common pool resource are not available to others. Each user is thus capable of subtracting

from the benefits that others derive from a common pool resource.

Because of these characteristics, common potentially pool resources are subject to over

exploitation, depletion or degradation. A broad challenge in the management of common pool

resources is how to co-ordinate use by individuals as population grows in order to prevent over-

exploitation. The terms common property resource (CPRr), common pool resource (CPR) and

commons are often used synonymously. However there are differences between CPRrs and

CPRs; in CPRrs, the rights holders have well defined property rights and use of resource is

subtractible whereas they are not so far CPRs.; Similarly the former always have rights and

regulations while it may/maynot be be there for the latter.Egs. CPRrs- common grazing land/

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woodlot / fishing grounds; CPRs-privately owned cultivated land lying vacant in between 2 crop

seasons (biomass, space etc.), community threshing floor.

Similarly, there are differences between CPRs and pure collective / public goods (PCG/PPG) and

Non- collective goods (NCG); PCGs/PPGs refer to any collective consumed goods whose rate of

consumption is independent of the number of consumers and the particular use made of the good

is non-competitive and non- subtractable; exclusion is not possible. Eg. Solar radiation, light-

houses etc.; NCG may be used only by one person or a few persons at a time, their use is

competitive and subtractable eg. Community water taps, community irrigation wells etc.

In the case of a CPR, the rate of consumption varies with the number of users and type of use;

like CGs, they are used jointly; thus, it can be called a mixed collective good (MCG) - like PCG,

it is used by all eligible members and exclusion of free - riders is difficult while like NCGs its

use is competitive and subtractable.

Property rights (SPR / GPR, PPR, CPR, CPRr) are affected by several variables, including the

ecological characteristics of the resource base, the level of ecological knowledge held by

resource users, social and economic objectives, the heterogeneity of users, organized structures

and cultures. Irrespective of the nature of the property rights, either sustainability or

overexploitation can occur, depending upon the above factors. Mere privatization or bringing the

resources under community by themselves cannot ensure sustainability.

ix. Pool resources? Is the tragedy of the commons inevitable? Discuss with examples from

tourism.

Common pool resources share two important characteristics: excludability and subtractability. The first attribute - difficulty of st exclusion - arises from several factors including the cost of

parceling or fencing the resource and the co of designing and enforcing property rights to control access to the resource. The second attribute - subtractability - creates rivalry between different users. The resource units (e.g. bundles of firewood or fodder) that one user extracts from a

common pool resource are not available to others. Each user is thus capable of subtracting from the benefits that others derive from a common pool resource.

Because of these characteristics, common potentially pool resources are subject to over

exploitation, depletion or degradation. A broad challenge in the management of common pool

resources is how to co-ordinate use by individuals as population grows in order to prevent over-

exploitation. The terms common property resource (CPRr), common pool resource (CPR) and

commons are often used synonymously. However there are differences between CPRrs and

CPRs; in CPRrs, the rights holders have well defined property rights and use of resource is

subtractible whereas they are not so far CPRs.; Similarly the former always have rights and

regulations while it may/maynot be be there for the latter.Egs. CPRrs- common grazing land/

woodlot / fishing grounds; CPRs-privately owned cultivated land lying vacant in between 2 crop

seasons (biomass, space etc.), community threshing floor.

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Similarly, there are differences between CPRs and pure collective / public goods (PCG/PPG) and Non- collective goods (NCG); PCGs/PPGs refer to any collective consumed goods whose rate of

consumption is independent of the number of consumers and the particular use made of the good is non-competitive and non- subtractable; exclusion is not possible. Eg. Solar radiation, light-

houses etc.; NCG may be used only by one person or a few persons at a time, their use is competitive and subtractable eg. Community water taps, community irrigation wells etc. In the case of a CPR, the rate of consumption varies with the number of users and type of use;

like CGs, they are used jointly; thus, it can be called a mixed collective good (MCG) - like PCG, it is used by all eligible members and exclusion of free - riders is difficult while like NCGs its

use is competitive and subtractable. Property rights (SPR / GPR, PPR, CPR, CPRr) are affected by several variables, including the

ecological characteristics of the resource base, the level of ecological knowledge held by

resource users, social and economic objectives, the heterogeneity of users, organized structures

and cultures. Irrespective of the nature of the property rights, either sustainability or

overexploitation can occur, depending upon the above factors. Mere privatization or bringing the

resources under community by themselves cannot ensure sustainability.

xi. Discuss the basic management strategies for common property resources with suitable

examples

1. Zoning:

Prescribing for all or specified parts of the managed area, specific purposes of use and entry,

such as:

Preservation Zone: With no human access other than for the purposes of permitted observational

research so that the area is held as a genetic pool.

Wilderness Zone: Where limited human access is allowed but no hunting/fishing/ collecting.

National park Zone: With high human access and strict controls on levels of hunting/fishing/

collecting/recreation

Recreational Zone: With high human access and controls on levels of hunting/fishing/

collecting.

General use Zone: Where commercial, recreational and subsistence activities are allowed on a

sustainable basis.

2. Periodic Closure: Short term closure during a part of the year (breeding season etc E.g.

‗Prohibited seasons') or for long period of time ie many years for eco restoration.

3. Yield Constraints: regulating the size of the fish catch, selective felling of trees.

4. Equipment Constraints: Prohibited methods eg. Use of dynamite for fishing, mesh - size

regulations for fishing, etc.

5. Impact Limitations: Determining the permitted levels of pollution, disturbance etc. so as to

limit the levels of impacts.

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6. Voluntary contracts: Agreements for restricted use

7. Financial mechanisms: Public/Government investment through various schemes such as

afforestation programme, water shed development programmes, hill area development

programme, integrated rural development programme etc.

8. Environmental education: for the public, school children's, teachers, Government officials,

and NGOs.

9. International conventions: for sustainable management of international commons

x. Write short notes on

1. Historical review of common property resources in India

The history of the CPRrs can be studied under the following periods:

• Pre - British period

• British period

• Post - British period.

Pre - British period:

The available evidence indicates that most of the CPRrs during the Vedic period were

sustainably managed by the kings and the local communities. Even before the British arrived

India, most of the CPRrs were managed by the local people on a sustainable basis to a larger

extent, where traditions, cultures and religions play important roles: eg. Sacred groves etc.

Ideally, CPRrs were governed by a, common property regime (ie a system of rights and duties)

which, prevented over exploitation by punishment for violating the rules. In the absence of fear

of punishment, sustainable management of CPRrs depend basically on mutual trust among

members of the user group ie each person adheres to his/her duties and responsibilities with

expectation that others will do the same. In the 19th century up to two third of land in India

was under community ownership.

British period:

Realizing the vast economic potential of the CPRrs which were largely under the control of the

local communities, the British initiated the policy of converting CPRrs into GPRs. Later on,

forest contracts were given for felling matured trees which however cause clear felling. The

tribals who were solely dependent on the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) were finding it

difficult to continue their hunting and gathering activities for their subsistence needs. Thus, they

were alienated. There is no reward for saving the forests; if they do not cut the trees in self-

interest, the contractors would take them any way! Thus, the history of conversion of CPRrs to

GPRs is the history of the change of sustainable exploitation to non-sustainable or over

exploitation of natural resources.

Post-British Period:

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In the post British period, conditions were not much different. In fact, CPRrs have witnessed

more and more privatization and Government appropriation; the village level institutions for

management of CPRrs have gradually been weakened due to the rapid social and economic

change; recent evidences indicate that even the sacred groves are not spared from the axe! Due to

these factors, CPRrs are reduced in size and they are also degraded. Only in a few remote

communities, CPRrs are managed on a sustainable basis.

2. Global commons

Global commons is a term typically used to describe international, supranational, and global resource domains in which common-pool resources are found. In economics, common goods are

rivalrous and non-excludable, constituting one of the four main types of goods. A common-pool resource, also called a common property resource, is a special case of a common good (or public good) whose size or characteristics makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential

users. Examples include both natural and human-made resource domains (e.g., a "fishing hole" or an irrigation system). Unlike global public goods, global common-pool resources face

problems of congestion, overuse, or degradation because they are subtractable (which makes them rivalrous).

The term "commons" originates from the term common land in the British Isles. "Commoners

rights" referred to traditional rights held by commoners, such as mowing meadows for hay or grazing livestock on common land held in the open field system of old English common law. Enclosure was the process that ended those traditional rights, converting open fields to private

property. Today, many commons still exist in England, Wales, Scotland, and the United States, although their extent is much reduced from the millions of acres that existed until the 17th

century. There are still over 7,000 registered commons in England alone.[6]

The term "global commons" is typically used to indicate the earth's shared natural resources, such as the deep oceans, the atmosphere, outer space and the Northern and Southern polar regions, the Antarctic in particular.

According to the World Conservation Strategy, a report on conservation published by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in collaboration with UNESCO and with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and

the World Wildlife Fund (WWF):

"A commons is a tract of land or water owned or used jointly by the members of a community. The global commons includes those parts of the Earth's surface beyond national jurisdictions —

notably the open ocean and the living resources found there — or held in common — notably the atmosphere. The only landmass that may be regarded as part of the global commons is Antarctica".

Today, the Internet, World Wide Web and resulting cyberspace are often referred to as global

commons. Other usages sometimes include references to open access information of all kinds, including arts and culture, language and science, though these are more formally referred to as

the common heritage of mankind.

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xii. Write short notes on prisoner's dilemma game CAMPFIRE

CAMPFIRE operates in Zimbabwe's communal lands, created early in this century when Europeans settling in ‗Rhodesia‘ claimed the most fertile land and forced much of the indigenous

population into semi-arid and arid areas. These now contain more than five million people, almost half the national population. Many of the communal lands have too little or unreliable rainfall for agriculture, but provide excellent wildlife habitat.

CAMPFIRE, designed and managed entirely by Africans, emerged in the mid-1980 with the recognition that as long as wildlife remained the property of the State no one would invest in it as

a resource. The 1975 parks and wild life act, Zimbabwe has allowed private property holders to claim ownership of wildlife on their land and to benefit from its use. Under CAMPFIRE, people living on Zimbabwe's impoverished communal lands – chiefly, the disadvantaged Black Africans

living on CPRrs., usually with poor soils and rugged terrain, representing 42% of the country, claim the same right of proprietorship. Partly because of the success of the programme the

amount of land given over for the wild life management in Zimbabwe for the past 5 years has risen from 12 to 35%. CAMPFIRE, however, was never intended as a way to create buffer zones around National Parks, but as a rural development program with a strong element of community

empowerment. Conceptually, CAMPFIRE includes all natural resources, but its focus has been wildlife

management in communal areas, particularly those adjacent to National Parks, where people and animals compete for scarce resources. Since its official inception in 1989, CAMPFIRE has engaged more than a quarter of a million people in the practice of managing wildlife and reaping

the benefits of using wild lands. Through CAMPFIRE, Zimbabwe seeks to involve rural communities in conservation and development by returning to them the stewardship of their

natural resources, harmonizing the needs of rural people with those of Ecosystems. The acceptance of CAMPFIRE is a reflection that conservation in Africa is rapidly changing. During colonial times it was best described as ‗conservation against the people', or at best, ‗conservation

for the people'. In some places, this has evolved into ‗conservation with the people‘ but in CAMPFIRE, it is recognized that rural communities in Africa must use natural resources for

their livelihoods and that these are the very people who must practice conservation. By linking wildlife to the development process we are seeking to achieve ‗conservation by the people'.

xiii. Under what ideal conditions common property resource management regimes will be

successful? Why? Discuss with suitable examples.

Based on the successful community based management strategies for tourism throughout the world, the following basic framework has been evolved for sustainable management of CPRrs.:

• More emphasis on preventive rather than ‗end of pipe line' technologies

• Construction/periodic updating of a comprehensive data-base

• Assessing UN/underutilized potentials of NRS to optimize their use.

• Restoration and landscape Ecology to increase habitat/ biodiversity, improve micro - climate-increase in recreation value, ecosystem stability and resilience

• Limiting tourism activates below the absorbing/carrying capacities of the ecosystems

• Augmentation, substitution and conservation of NRS

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• Appropriate changes in environmental legislation to incorporate fiscal policy changes (pollution taxes/quotas, incentives/subsidies for pollution control/habitat restoration etc), tradable permits.

However, as some past experiences in countries like Costa Rica, Belize, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe,

and Kenya etc indicate, care has to be taken to ensure that eco-tourism under the CPRr regime:

• is restricted to small numbers and groups

• do not alienate the local people but involve them actively in planning

• helps to increase the recreational value for tourist and income of the locals

• The following arguments explain why the commons have to be maintained as commons under certain circumstances:

• Low levels of income and literacy of rural communities make it impossible for them to opt for costly PPR based institutions

• Majority of the people are poor and are more closely dependent on natura l resources especially CPRs

which are prone to natural calamities that are un-predicable in space and time. Only joint use rights and collective management regimes contribute to economic and social stability under these conditions.

• As an institutional insurance against individual failure, thus spreading the risk

• CPR institutions are well established; alternative institutions are difficult if not impossible

• Land remaining in common use is often best suited to uses, which benefit from, or require the economies of scale that are only possible with group rather than individual management.

However, rarely nationalization of CPRs may be needed. The following are some of the arguments for the same. Nationalization:

• can better protect public interest against elites and anti-social elements

• has a longer planning horizon and hence a lower discount rate than individuals - thus better time

management is possible.

• can raise investment funds more easily through its contacts and because of its legitimacy

• can better internalize externalities through judiciary, environmental legislation and regulatory mechanisms

However, one of the major arguments against nationalization is the relative insensitivity and

unaccountability of the bureaucracy (who will watch the watchers) and its remoteness from the

site. Interestingly, there are a few success stories also. E.g. Water shed development in many

States, especially Karnataka-restored the highly degraded CPRs of land, water and forests.

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Unit 7

1. Compare and contrast mass tourism with Eco-tourism with appropriate examples

There is considerable acrimony among proponents of mass tourism and those of ecotourism

concerning various factors including travel safety as well as security and even global or regional

schisms are developing. There are indeed many factors such as the rich vs. poor, developed vs.

developing, economic vs. cultural values and of course terrorist vs. tourist that needs to be

considered. The question is whether we will choose one side or is integration possible. Tourism

is it mass tourism or ecotourism is certainly a vehicle that promotes better learning about

different peoples and their cultures.

Making An Informed Decision

Nevertheless, there are certain differences between mass tourism and eco-tourism and we need to

explore these to arrive at an informed decision about which one is better and also to learn how to

improve both forms of tourism. Mass tourism will generally have its own characteristics that

include concentration of high volume sales, shifting of large groups of tourists, full utilization of

holiday packages and also development of huge transport systems and infrastructure, and

marketing is more hedonistic.

On the other hand, differences between mass tourism and eco-tourism show that ecotourism is

more nature based, low impact as well as small scale, promotes conservation, supports local

communities, helps maintain natural and cultural integrity, and makes use of environmentally

friendly methods as also technologies. Thus, one can easily see that there are major differences

between mass tourism and eco-tourism and mass tourism is normally associated with high

volumes, large scale, fast pace as well as hedonism, while ecotourism is small scale, nature

centric as well as conservation oriented.

Whereas mass tourism has been around for a long time, ecotourism only began in the eighties

and this is another one of the major differences between mass tourism and eco-tourism.

Ecotourism aims at balancing economic development of tourism, and conservation as well as

protecting the natural resources is central to it, while mass tourism is like a juggernaut that pays

scant heed to any lofty ideals and is instead hell bent on churning profits and thus pays little

attention to sustainable development, and as such, this is another of the many important

differences between mass tourism and eco-tourism.

In addition, while considering the differences between mass tourism and eco-tourism one can

also think of tourist destinations themselves that are either suited for one form of tourism and

exclusive to the other. Take for instance the Pacific Islands that are ideally suited for ecotourism

and not for mass tourism. Thus, one can easily understand that if ecotourism is uppermost in the

minds of tourists, they will naturally gravitate towards such places, where there is little or

nothing for the mass tourist type of traveler. Ecotourism may also take one to places where the

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climate as well as constraints of smallness make such destinations unsuited for mass tourism.

Other such destinations that do not make for ideal mass tourism include Fiji, Tahiti, New

Caledonia as well as the Cook Islands; though they do see some amount of mass tourism along

with ecotourism, which of course is the primary form of tourism it is helping in leading to a more

integrated type of tourism, which is thus narrowing down the differences between mass tourism

and eco-tourism.

2. Define Ecotourism. Discuss the potentials and constraints for introducing Ecotourism in

India

The Definition:

Ecotourism is: "Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." (TIES, 1990)

Principles of Ecotourism:

Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should follow the following

ecotourism principles:

Minimize impact.

Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect. Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.

Provide direct financial benefits for conservation. Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people.

Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate.

The following factors may be considered for the potential of ecotourism industry in India: - Ecotourism is one of the important industries that earn

foreign exchange for a country without actually exporting any material goods. The income from

ecotourism has tended to increase at a higher rate than merchandise export in a number of countries.

- Development and improvement of infrastructure facilities are another important benefit offered by the ecotourism industry. A variety of secondary industries may be promoted which may not serve the needs of ecotourism.

Thus, indirectly; tourist expenditure may be responsible for stimulating other economic activities of a country.

- Tourism development greatly benefits underdeveloped regions of a country. These economically backward regions mostly have places of high scenic beauty which if developed for the tourism industry, will help to bring a lot of

prosperity to the local people. mployment: - Tourism industry is highly labour intensive service

industry that generates employment for highly skilled, semiskilled and unskilled labour in sectors like hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tourism offices, shops etc.

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ing peace and understanding: - Tourism plays an important role in promoting international goodwill. It creates awareness and appreciation of other countries culture

and nature. A fundamental requirement for ecotourism to be practiced is control on access to an area.

Various hill stations or beaches therefore do not get categorized as ecotourism destinations because it is impossible to control access to them. National parks and wildlife sanctuaries are on the other hand most amenable to regulate access and thus most suitable as eco-tourist

destinations. The Protected Area Network in the country therefore becomes the most logical starting point for development of ecotourism. Most eco tourists are from Europe, North America and Japan.

Constraints for promoting Eco-tourism:

ET has limited potential due to various limitations that include: • Geographical and biological factors – due to the fragility of the habitats involved

• Physical factors (denser cover in protected areas vs higher visibility preferred for viewing)

• Economic factors (only a few sites are sufficiently unique to attract enough tourist so as to be economically self-sufficient)

• Cultural factors (danger of acculturation, if Eco-tour promoters/tourists are insensitive to the local cultural diversity)

• Ownership rights and sharing of benefits – the tragedy of the CPRs and other conflicts

• ET is not a panacea – cannot replace mass tourism everywhere (due to the fact that it can be introduced only under certain pre-conditions)

• Conflicts between tourism development and conservation – the tradeoffs/compromises without degrading habitat/ species diversity and livelihood security are becoming difficult due to the market forces

• Booming human populations, especially in the third world exacerbate the hunger for land and

its natural resources thereby threatening the. Ecological integrity and sustainability of PAs.

Such constraints reflect the relative immaturity of the tourism management field and should not discourage us in adopting ET, wherever it can be potentially introduced. They only help us to understand the complexity of the issues involved and the community based/ community run ET

case studies would guide us to formulate viable ET ventures. It is encouraging to note that throughout the world, there is a growing need for ‗greening‘ the tourism industry and to ‗eco-

sell‘ tourism and travel, as modern tourists are seeking destinations with unspoiled natural beauty. Unfortunately, some tour companies regard ET as a passing fad or a gimmick or a buzzword and consider it conveniently as a synonym with any offering resembling an ―outdoor

activity,‖ whether it takes a responsible approach to the environment or not. Often the ET label is misused by tourism operations in what is known as ―green washing,‖ or ―green cloaking‖ which

include unregulated development of relatively undisturbed areas, appropriation of ancestral lands, or just applying traditional tourism development models under the name of eco- tourism. For example there is a 200-room ―eco-lodge‖ in the Brazilian Amazon with no sewage treatment,

no involvement with local communities and no effort to lower the social or environmental impacts created. Sadly, many State tourism development corporations in our country too have

joined the bandwagon by ignoring the very definition of ET and have started promoting nature

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based mass tourism without integrating Environmental and socioeconomic sustainability in to their programmes.

3. With an example of a successful case study of community based ET, explain the methods

you would adopt to evolve a similar venture in India.

The fate of the World Heritage site - Ifugao Rice Terraces in Banawe

This is a case study of a badly designed ET destination area and its irreversible impacts on the nature and culture. In 1995, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

(UNESCO) as a World Heritage Site Northern Philippines (considered as the world's eighth wonder) declared the world-famous Ifugao Rice Terraces in Banawe, Ifugao province. This was

part of the Philippine government's campaign to sell Ifugao as a major tourist destination in the world. The influx of tourists over the decades has similarly affected the Ifugaos, the indigenous inhabitants of the province. Foremost is the disruption of traditional economic practices and

livelihoods of the community. The builders of the world-renowned rice terraces, the Ifugaos for centuries have subsisted on crops planted in their terraces. With the entry of tourists and hotels, the lure of money from tourist-related businesses such as selling of woodcarvings, antique

heirlooms such as beads and religious icons such as the bulul or rice god became more attractive than subsistence farming. Even traditional houses are being sold! Commercial production of

woodcarvings has also affected nearby forests. Trees have been cut down to support commercial woodcarving activities that cater to foreign as well as domestic tourist demand. This has led to the drying up of water sources much needed for irrigation as well as for meeting the growing

needs of the tourists and the locals. This has left many terraces untended and in danger of deterioration. Tourism's pressure on the very lives and culture of Ifugao folk and on forest

resources (e.g, tourism-motivated woodcarving), will eventually kill the rice terraces, the main driving force behind the tourism industry.

A cooperative farming practice called ‗ug-ugbo‘ for women and ‗bachang‘ for men has helped sustain and nurture the rice terraces for ages. But this practice is being eroded as the monetary

economy invades Ifugao, thanks to the well-promoted tourism industry. Under the cooperative practice, neighboring farmers would go voluntarily as a group to one field to clear weeds, plant

or harvest rice, and repair eroded terrace walls or irrigation canals. The owner of the field would just provide the food and is expected to help when another neighbor needs help in the future. Not anymore - workers who now help in the fields or in terrace wall and irrigation repairs are paid

either in kind or in cash, depending on what the workers ask for. The demise of Ifugao's cooperative farming tradition has led to rising labour costs, which the ordinary Ifugao farmer can

hardly afford. This helps reduce the attractiveness of rice terrace farming for many locals. As a result, more and more Ifugao folk have completely given up farming in favor of tourism-related jobs such as posing before the tourist's camera for a fee. To meet the needs and demands of

visitors and tourists, some Ifugao farmers have shifted to planting vegetables. But this shift demands the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that could damage the fertility and ecology

of the rice terraces. Eventually, the very reason that made the tourism industry flourish in Ifugao will be gone forever, driving the tourists away, and leaving the people with whatever is left of their culture, environment and dignity.

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4. Trace linkages between Eco tourism and Environment/ socioeconomic factors. Discuss

with suitable examples.

Though tourism could lead to a variety of potential benefits, uncontrolled mass tourism, the most predominant form of tourism today, inevitably increases the already existing conflicts, besides creating new ones. Tourism's voracious appetite for basic resources - land, water and energy -

has meant that the tourism industry and Government Agencies are increasingly finding themselves opposed over land rights and water rights by local people. Lack of access by locals to

public beaches, violation by hotels of environmental regulations, and heavy-handed tactics by local authorities to free- up beach areas for hotels‘ use, have all been cited in legal disputes throughout the world. For instance, three quarters of the sand dunes on the Mediterranean coast

between Spain and Sicily have now disappeared, largely because. Of the construction of hotels and holiday fiats. Sincerely most of the beach areas are lost due to construction of hotels in

Kovalam, Kerla. One of the most famous long-term tourism protests has been in Goa. With one five-star hotel consuming as much water as five local villages and one five-star tourist consuming 28 times more electricity per day than a local Goan, local discontent over resource-

use is understandable. Another serious concern is ―tourism leakages―. Often a major fraction of the money spent by the mass tourists ranging between 10 to 55% gets leaked away (to pay for

imported goods and services) from the destination areas. Ill-conceived, improperly planned and uncontrolled tourism activities would adversely affect the natural as well as cultural resources. Local culture is ―sold" as commodity, with little if any

regard/value to the indigenous cultures. Such commercialization at best become disingenuous and at worst become highly distorted, accentuating negative stereotypes (Peine, 1999).

Thus there are Geographical, Social- Economic, Ecological/Environmental and Psychological aspects of Tourism. Among these, the Ecological/Environmental dimension of Tourism is the most important and vital link for the survival of the Tourism industry itself, since the industry

cannot survive without protecting the Ecology/Environment of the destination areas. The industry has learned this bitter lesson after the irreversible damages have set in. Examples can be

seen everywhere the mass tourism went out of control -starting from Ooty and Kodai lakes in the South to Dal lake in the North; from Kovalam in the South to Goa in the North; even our nation's pride Taj Mahal is not spared! It is very pertinent to recall the Asian proverb ―Tourism is like a fire; you can cook your soup in it; but you can also burn down your house with it‖

5. Write short notes on

a) Water sports

1. a sport played or practiced on or in water, as swimming, water polo, or surfing.

2. Watersports, (used with a singular or plural verb) Slang. sexual activity that typically involves

urinating on or being urinated on by others.

India offers numerous water sports activities to enjoy the adventurous water sports like Surfing,

Water skiing and Para sailing. India is a land of pulsating coastlines, golden beaches and swift

rivers, which makes India one of best tourist spot. Major destinations for these Adventures

Sports in India are Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These

are the best places for water sports adventure in India. There are many more water sports in India

like Sailing, Boating and river water Rafting and kayaking.

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b) Quebec declaration on ecotourism

In the framework of the UN International Year of Ecotourism, 2002, under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO), over one thousand participants coming from 132 countries, from the public, private and non-

governmental sectors met at the World Ecotourism Summit, hosted in Quebec City, Canada, by Tourisme Quebec and the Canadian Tourism Commission, between 19 and 22 may 2002.

Quebec Summit represented the culmination of 18 preparatory meetings held in 2001 and 2002, involving over 3,000 representatives from national and local governments including the tourism, environment and other administrations, private ecotourism businesses and their trade

associations, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and consultants, intergovernmental organizations, and indigenous and local communities.

The participants at the Summit acknowledge the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, August/September 2002, as the ground-setting event for international policy in the next 10 years, and emphasize that, as a leading industry, the sustainability of

tourism should be a priority at WSSD due to its potential contribution to poverty alleviation and environmental protection in endangered ecosystems.

Participants therefore request the UN, its organizations and member Governments represented at this Summit to disseminate the following Declaration and other results from the World Ecotourism Summit at the WSSD the participants to the World Ecotourism Summit, aware of the

limitations recognize that ecotourism embraces the principles of sustainable tourism, concerning the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism. It also embraces specific principles,

which distinguish it from the wider concept of sustainable tourism.

Unit 8

1. Describe the various UN initiatives on Ecology and Environment that are relevant for the

tourism sector.

The tourism industry can contribute to conservation through:

Financial contributions

Direct financial contributions Tourism can contribute directly to the conservation of sensitive areas and habitat. Revenue from

park-entrance fees and similar sources can be allocated specifically to pay for the protection and management of environmentally sensitive areas. Special fees for park operations or conservation activities can be collected from tourists or tour operators.

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The tour operator Discovery Initiatives, which is a member of the Tour Operators Initiative for

Sustainable Tourism Development, makes an annual financial contribution to the Orangutan Foundation

of some US$ 45,000. The money is earned from only 5 tour groups of 10 people each visiting the Tanjing

Putting National Park in Central Kalimantan. The park is under huge pressures from deforestation and

river pollution from unrestricted gold mining. This money directly funds park staff and rangers,

rehabilitation efforts for young orangutans, and the care center. It provide s almost the only economic

support for saving this park, where the park fees are officially only the equivalent of 12 pence a day.

Contributions to government revenues

Some governments collect money in more far-reaching and indirect ways that are not linked to specific

parks or conservation areas. User fees, income taxes, taxes on sales or rental of recreation equipment,

and license fees for activities such as hunting and fishing can provide governments with the funds

needed to manage natural resources. Such funds can be used for overall conservation programs and

activities, such as park ranger salaries and park maintenance.

The Seychelles in the Indian Ocean is introducing a US$ 90 tax on travelers entering the Seychelles.

Revenue will be used to preserve the environment and improve tourism facilities. (UNEP, report to the

CSD, 1999)

In West Virginia (US) a whitewater rafting tax is collected from everyone who participates in a

commercial rafting trip. The fee goes toward studying the environmental impacts of rafting. In addition,

the rafting companies participate in several river cleanup days each year. (EPA)

In Belize, a US$ 3.75 departure tax goes directly to the Protected Area Conservation Trust, a Belizean

fund dedicated to the conservation of the barrier reef and rainforest. ( The International Ecotourism

Society)

For Costa Rica, for example, tourism represents 72% of national monetary reserves, generates 140,000

jobs and produces 8.4% of the gross domestic product. The country has 25% of its territory classified

under some category of conservation management. In 1999, protected areas welcomed 866,083

national and foreign tourists, who generated about US$ 2.5 million in admission fees and payment of

services.

Improved environmental management and planning

Sound environmental management of tourism facilities and especially hotels can increase the benefits

to natural areas. But this requires careful planning for controlled development, based on analysis of the

environmental resources of the area. Planning helps to make choices between conflicting uses, or to find

ways to make them compatible. By planning early for tourism development, damaging and expensiv e

mistakes can be prevented, avoiding the gradual deterioration of environmental assets significant to

tourism.

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Cleaner production techniques can be important tools for planning and operating tourism facilities in a

way that minimizes their environmental impacts. For example, green building (using energy-efficient and

non-polluting construction materials, sewage systems and energy sources) is an increasingly important

way for the tourism industry to decrease its impact on the environment. And because waste treatment

and disposal are often major, long-term environmental problems in the tourism industry, pollution

prevention and waste minimization techniques are especially important for the tourism industry. A

guide to sources of information on cleaner production (free) is available here.

Environmental awareness raising

Tourism has the potential to increase public appreciation of the environment and to spread awareness of environmental problems when it brings people into closer contact with nature and

the environment. This confrontation may heighten awareness of the value of nature and lead to environmentally conscious behavior and activities to preserve the environment. For instance, Honduran schoolchildren from the capital city of Tegucigalpa are routinely taken to visit La

Tigra cloud forest visitor center, funded in part by eco-tourist dollars, to learn about the intricacies of the rainforest.

If it is to be sustainable in the long run, tourism must incorporate the principles and practices of

sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption includes building consumer demand for products that have been made using cleaner production techniques, and for services - including

tourism services - that are provided in a way that minimizes environmental impacts. The tourism industry can play a key role in providing environmental information and raising awareness among tourists of the environmental consequences of their actions. Tourists and tourism-related

businesses consume an enormous quantity of goods and services; moving them toward using those that are produced and provided in an environmentally sustainable way, from cradle to grave, could have an enormous positive impact on the planet's environment.

Protection and preservation

Tourism can significantly contribute to environmental protection, conservation and restoration of

biological diversity and sustainable use of natural resources. Because of their attractiveness,

pristine sites and natural areas are identified as valuable and the need to keep the attraction alive

can lead to creation of national parks and wildlife parks.

In Hawaii, new laws and regulations have been enacted to preserve the Hawaiian rainforest and

to protect native species. The coral reefs around the islands and the marine life that depend on

them for survival are also protected. Hawaii now has become an international center for research

on ecological systems - and the promotion and preservation of the islands' tourism industry was

the main motivation for these actions. (Source: Mundus)

Grupo Punta Cana, a resort in the Dominican Republic, offers an example of how luxury tourism

development and conservation can be combined. The high-end resort was established with the

goal of catering to luxury-class tourists while respecting the natural habitat of Punta Cana. The

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developers have set aside 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of land as a nature reserve and native

fruit tree garden. The Punta Cana Nature Reserve includes 11 fresh water springs surrounded by

a subtropical forest where many species of unusual Caribbean flora and fauna live in their natural

state. Guests can explore a "nature path" leading from the beach through mangroves, lagoons of

fresh water springs and dozens of species of Caribbean bird and plant life. The Punta Cana

Ecological Foundation has begun reforesting some parts of the reserve that had been stripped of

their native mahogany and other trees in the past. Other environmentally protective policies have

been put into effect at the resort, such as programs to protect the offshore barrier reefs and the

recycling of wastewater for use in irrigating the grounds. The fairways of the resort's new golf

course were planted with a hybrid grass that can be irrigated with sea water The grass also

requires less than half the usual amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. The resort has also

established a biodiversity laboratory run by Cornell University.

Tourism has had a positive effect on wildlife preservation and protection efforts, notably in

Africa but also in South America, Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific. Numerous animal and

plant species have already become extinct or may become extinct soon. Many countries have

therefore established wildlife reserves and enacted strict laws protecting the animals that draw

nature-loving tourists. As a result of these measures, several endangered species have begun to

thrive again.

In the Great Lakes region of Africa, mountain gorillas, one of the world's most endangered great

apes, play a critical ecological, economic and political role. Their habitat lies on the borders of

northwestern Rwanda, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southwestern Uganda.

Despite 10 years of political crisis and civil war in the region, the need for revenue from ape-

related tourism has led all sides in the conflict to cooperate in protecting the apes and their

habitat.

Establishment of a gorilla tracking permit, which costs US$ 250 plus park fees, means that just

three habituated gorilla groups of about 38 individuals in total can generate over US$ 3 million

in revenue per year, making each individual worth nearly US$ 90,000 a year to Uganda.

Tourism funds have contributed to development at the local, national and regional level. The

presence of such a valuable tourism revenue source in the fragile afromontane forests ensures

that these critical habitats are protected, thus fulfilling their valuable ecological function

including local climate regulation, water catchment,and natural resources for local

communities.

Alternative employment

Tourism can provide an alternative to development scenarios that may have greater

environmental impacts. The Eco-escuela de Español, a Spanish language school created in 1996

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as part of a Conservation International project in the Guatemalan village of San Andres, is an example. The community-owned school, located in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, combines

individual language courses with home stay opportunities and community-led eco-tours. It receives around 1,800 tourists yearly, mostly from the US and Europe, and employs almost 100

residents, of whom around 60% were previously engaged in mostly illegal timber extraction, hunting and milpas, or slash-and-burn agriculture. Careful monitoring in 2000 has shown that, among the families benefiting from the business, the majority has significantly reduced hunting

practices, and the number and extension of "slash-and-burn" agricultural plots. Furthermore, as most families in the village benefit directly or indirectly from the school, community-managed

private reserves have been established, and social pressure against hunting has increased.

Awareness raising and alternative employment: the orangutan viewing centre at Bohorok,

Indonesia Observing wild and semi-wild orangutans in their natural habitat is a significant environmental

education opportunity for large numbers of domestic visitors. To enhance this education experience, the existing station at Bohorok, North Sumatra is to be transformed from a

rehabilitation center into an orangutan viewing center, thus offering another, crucial contribution to the sustainable conservation of the rainforest ecosystem. By developing ecotourism for orangutan viewing under the new project, all visitors will gain a rewarding

personal experience from orangutans, wildlife and the rainforest ecosystem in general. This will increase their awareness of the importance of rainforest conservation. Moreover, tourism will

continue to provide a major source of income for the local population, thus promoting sustainable forest utilization as a genuine alternative to timber exploitation and the poaching and trade of wildlife.

Regulatory measures

Regulatory measures help offset negative impacts; for instance, controls on the number of tourist

activities and movement of visitors within protected areas can limit impacts on the ecosystem and help maintain the integrity and vitality of the site. Such limits can also reduce the negative

impacts on resources.

Limits should be established after an in-depth analysis of the maximum sustainable visitor capacity. This strategy is being used in the Galapagos Islands, where the number of ships allowed to cruise this remote archipelago is limited, and only designated islands can be visited,

ensuring visitors have little impact on the sensitive environment and animal habitats.

2. Write short notes on

a. Integrated decentralized environmental planning

All over the world, there is a gradual shift of paradigm in terms of implementation of environmental management plans in line with the ―Think Global, Act Local‖ concept. Post Rio,

the host of Global conventions, agreements and norms (collectively called the Rio Agreements) that have been formulated all have a prime focus on implementation at the local level - which is

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where real environmental action takes place - targeting the man-on-the-street. The policy shift has in turn triggered a shift from highly centralized and compartmentalized bureaucratic

structures to decentralized and participatory governance for implementation of environmental monitoring plans and programs in most of the developing countries. On the ground, this has

resulted in devolution of powers and the delegation of responsibilities to state / provincial governments, local bodies and municipalities to undertake environmental protection measures within the national conservation strategies. In India too, decentralization and community driven

management strategies have come to the forefront because of the process of globalization and associated economic reforms. For example, direct local democracy in the form of definitive role

of the village panchayat / ward council as an action point to find solution to local problems has been mandated through the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Indian Constitution In light of these policy imperatives, the new system for EC emphasizes on a stronger role for State

government bodies and local governments / village institutions in the EC process This is also in tune with the thinking of the State Governments who are keen to play a an increasingly more

significant role in environmental decision making to grant environmental clearance to developmental activities or projects to come up at any location within their jurisdiction.

The new system also takes into consideration the fact that the State Governments are better equipped to carry out project level enforcement in terms of reach, legal backing and

administrative measures at their disposal. For example, the State Governments have control over water and electricity supply and are empowered to take actions against defaulters. The Central Government is envisaged to play a more crucial role in formulating and crystallizing the

strategies, policies and programmes for the Government. The State Governments would however be under the close surveillance of the Central Government to ensure overall environmental

performance.

b. CRZ

Coastal States/UTs are required to prepare Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs) as per the provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 1991, identifying and categorizing

the coastal areas for different activities and submit it to the Ministry for approval. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) came into existence on February 19, 1991, with the

gazetting of the notification by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) under Sec. 3(1) and Sec. 3(2)(v) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and Rule 5(3)(d) of the Environment Protection Rules, 1986. Through the Notification the Central Government declared

the coastal stretches of seas, bays, estuaries, creeks, rivers and backwaters, which are influenced by tidal action (in the land ward side), up to 500m. From the high tide line (HTL) and the land

between the low tide line (LTL) and HTL as CRZ. In the case of rivers, creeks and backwaters, the Notification stated that the CRZ could be modified on a case by case basis, on the basis of reasons to be recorded during the preparation of

the coastal zone management plan (CZMP). However, the width of the CRZ from each bank could not be less than 100 m., or the width of the water body, whichever was less.

3. Critically evaluate the Environmental planning process in our country. Discuss the

potentials for improvements.

It is now being increasingly recognised that environmental factors and ecological imperatives

must be built in to the total planning process if the long-term goal of making development

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sustainable is to be achieved. To provide greater systematic impetus and focus to environmental

issues at the Central and State level, new organisational structures have been created. The

Government of India set up a Department of Environment in the Sixth Plan. The State/UT

Government were also asked to set up structures which could act as focal points for enviorn-

mental considerations in the State Plans; the Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,

Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West

Bengal have set up appropriate structures. A number of Ministries/Departments of the

Government of India now go into environmental considerations in some detail in their major

developmental programmes.

Environmental considerations in the planning process and in the implementation of national

development strategies must be based on an understanding of the following issues and

responsibilities:

The environment with its component of living and non-living resources, represents the

most fundamental building blocks for national development and social well being.

The environment today is under severe threat from the pressure generated by growth of

human and animal populations, poverty and the misuse/ unplanned use of natural

resources.

Stabilisation of human and livestock population is as crucial for environmental

management as it is for achieving other plan objectives.

While many of the country's environmental ills could be corrected by rapid economic

growth with social justice, utmost care must be exercised to ensure that development

activities which bring about such changes are designed so as not to lead to adverse

environmental effects. The nation's planning for economic growth and social well-being

in each sector must always take note of the need to protect environmental resources, and

where possible, must work to secure improvement in environmental quality.

Therefore, the primary responsibility for environmental protection must rest with each

sectoral authority (ministry, department, development agency, corporate body, municipal

council, village panchayat, etc.) which would have to develop formal mechanisms to take

account of environmental concerns in policies, plans, programmes, projects and

legislations that come under their purview.

Environmental considerations should form an important element in the criteria for setting

developmental targets and assessing plan performance in all sectors. Environmental

management must be integral to all development activities.

The Department of Environment at the Centre, and its counterparts at the State level

would essentially serve as catalysts to promote environmentally sound national

development, through provision of management information, technical expertise,

monitoring, research and administrative support and, wherever possible, limited financial

assistance.

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The prime responsibility with regard to the environment would rest with the various

implementing authorities for development programmes and with the community. For this,

environmental education and awareness building is crucial.

Environmental planning/protection/improvement requires a coordinated, highly

decentralised approach involving the cooperation and active participation of every

segment of society, and most importantly of the political leadership.

Unit 9

1. Trace the linkages between human populations, natural resources and development and

discuss the issues involved from tourism perspective.

The relationship between the population and the environment, and the human impact on the

nature has been permanently studied along the history. The continuous population growth, which

has become especially intense from the Industrial Revolution on, has been the main stimulus for

the scholars to theorise about the effects of the population on the environment, generally, and on

the resources, particularly, but always starting with different conceptual undergrounds.

Therefore, before continuing with the exposition, it is necessary to firstly give a general view on

how both concepts we are working with, i.e. population and environment, have been defined.

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Although there have been some exceptions, in most of the studies the concept of population has

been limited to the demographic growth, the increase of the total population volume, without

taking into account other significant demographic variables, such as age/sex structure, migration

patterns, space distribution of the population, mobility patterns or the connection of the

individuals with the activity. Few authors are being conscious of this lack and moreover, the

attempts at changing this situation, such as the virtual forum arranged by the Population and

Environment Research Network on their website, have failed and have also triggered the debate

on the population being a simple amount of people, again.

Another constant omission is not taking into account other characteristic features of the societies,

a part from the strictly demographic ones. Following this idea, several authors have stated that,

given the connection of the population with the environment, it is necessary to consider the

social and the cultural aspects of the society. Thus, in order to decrease the pressure on the

resources, it is not enough to set up birth control policies (as China does currently, for instance),

but it is also necessary to work on other factors, as the cultural, the social and the economic ones,

and to emphasise some other elements too, as the poverty, the trade laws, or the government

policies. So, in contrast with the direct relationship between the other species and the

environment, this point of view accentuates the social and the cultural human organisation;

accordingly, the environmental change is seen as a natural, but also a social process.

However, the most studies‘ central idea, which is simple, but its simplicity doesn‘t diminish its

validity, is that the population growth puts an increasing pressure on the environment, due to the

also increasing need of raw material for the community‘s survival. Therefore, the population

growth generates a bigger pressure on the soil because of the higher demand of cultivable land,

the current competence between different economic activities and the exhaustion of certain

mineral and fossil resources for the energy needs.

On the contrary, the environment has been defined in many different ways, including climate

zones, urban or rural locations, or, above all, specific natural resources (air, water, forests and

soils, mainly). Clarke (1995) has given three possible definitions of environment:

Physical/natural. The environment is seen as a landscape whose features (the climate, the soil,

the geology, etc) have not been changed by the human impact.

Geographical. It takes into account the man-made changes, usually distinguishing between the

inhabited and the uninhabited landscape, the urban and the rural one, etc. Nowadays, one of the

most prominent investigations lines, as it can be seen further, is the relative importance

quantification of the human and the natural factors in the environmental change.

Ecological. The environment is seen as the external or environmental conditions where animals

and plants live.

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However, in most of the cases, the description of the environment is reduced to the natural

resource concept. Although there have been provided a lot of definitions, the most accepted one

among the authors, perhaps because it is wide, is the United Nation‘s one: ‗all those nature

products which are useful for the humanity‘.

Although this definition is possibly an excessively general one, it contains three essential ideas

which can be found in any definition: a) the fact that these products belong or are made from a

natural system, b) they fulfil needs and c) they emphasise the passiveness of the natural resources

availability; and it also ignores the active process of appropriation and transformation of the

resources through the scientific-technical knowledge. Thus, their consideration as here presented

may change through the time and along the space.

Therefore, the resources cannot be considered as a stock, since their value depends much more

on the needs and the technological situation of a certain moment, than on the resources

themselves. Actually, there is a regular resources flow, controlled by the dynamics of the natural

phenomena, the social system and its ability of ‗creating‘ new resources in order to replace the

obsolete ones. Concurrently, the author underlines the difference between the concepts of

resource and reserve. ‗Reserve‘ merely refers to the known deposits, which can be exploited by

using the technology available at normal prices. On the contrary, ‗resource‘ is, as mentioned

above, a quite wider concept. On the other hand, the demarcation between the renewable and the

non-renewable is often used, even though it is rather ambiguous, since both categories are not

totally mutually-exclusive.

To conclude, the variables used for calculating the environmental degradation include both,

quantitative (the pollution, the soil deprivation) and qualitative (the population perception)

dimensions.

UAnother important aspect in the studies of population and environment is the bidirectionality of

the relationships between these two concepts. Thus, the first perspective studies the population as

an agent that receives the environmental changes, such as environmental degradation, natural

disasters, etc. That is to say that the population is affected by these changes, even though it may

previously have been the direct or indirect responsible of them. Whereas this first perspective has

been mainly developed in the studies focusing the Third World countries, another perspective

has been given in the studies referring to the Western countries. In contrast, this second one

considers that the population (its economic activities, the exploitation, the natural resources

consumption, etc) is the main cause of the environmental degradation.

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Finally, before showing the historical investigation lines on the relationship between the

population and the environment, we should point out the data availability. The first difficulty we

have to face is the frequent incomparability of both the demographic and the environmental data,

since they are not related to the same area or period of time. One of the reasons of this fact is the

separately-made collection of both data types, which have not been specifically taken for

analysing the relationship between population and environment, but, on the contrary, have been

taken for other purposes.

Generally speaking, the empirical base for estimating the distribution, the growth and the volume

of the population is better than the one intended for the environment, since it contains

information collected from the population census, the register of births, marriages and deaths,

and surveys. Regarding the environment, there are great differences among the countries about

the following topics: a) the primary data availability, b) the quality, the comparability and the

frequency of the data collection and c) the quality of the resulting information systems

2. Describe the basic principles of Human Ecology. In what ways they can be related to

tourism?

Ecology is the science of relationships between living organisms and their environment. Human

ecology is about relationships between people and their environment. In human ecology the

environment is perceived as an ecosystem (see Figure 1.1). An ecosystem is everything in a specified area - the air, soil, water, living organisms and physical structures, including everything built by humans. The living parts of an ecosystem - microorganisms, plants and animals

(including humans) - are its biological community.

Ecosystems can be any size. A small pond in a forest is an ecosystem, and the entire forest is an ecosystem. A single farm is an ecosystem, and a rural landscape is an ecosystem. Villages, towns

and large cities are ecosystems. A region of thousands of square kilometres is an ecosystem, and the planet Earth is an ecosystem.

Although humans are part of the ecosystem, it is useful to think of human - environment

interaction as interaction between the human social system and the rest of the ecosystem. The social system is everything about people, their population and the psychology and social

organization that shape their behaviour. The social system is a central concept in human

ecology because human activities that impact on ecosystems are strongly influenced by the society in which people live. Values and knowledge - which together form our worldview as

individuals and as a society - shape the way that we process and interpret information and translate it into action. Technology defines our repertoire of possible actions. Social organization, and the social institutions that specify socially acceptable behaviour, shape the

possibilities into what we actually do. Like ecosystems, social systems can be on any scale - from a family to the entire human population of the planet.

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The ecosystem provides services to the social system by moving materials, energy and information to the social system to meet people‘s needs. These ecosystem services include water, fuel, food, materials for clothing, construction materials and recreation. Movements of

materials are obvious; energy and information are less so. Every material object contains energy, most conspicuous in foods and fuels, and every object contains information in the way it is

structured or organized. Information can move from ecosystems to social systems independent of materials. A hunter‘s discovery of his prey, a farmer‘s observation of his field, a city dweller‘s assessment of traffic when crossing the street, and a refreshing walk in the woods are all

transfers of information from ecosystem to social system.

Material, energy and information move from social system to ecosystem as a consequence of human activities that impact the ecosystem:

People affect ecosystems when they use resources such as water, fish, timber and

livestock grazing land. After using materials from ecosystems, people return the materials to ecosystems as

waste. People intentionally modify or reorganize existing ecosystems, or create new ones, to

better serve their needs.

With machines or human labour, people use energy to modify or create ecosystems by moving

materials within them or between them. They transfer information from social system to ecosystem whenever they modify, reorganize, or create an ecosystem. The crop that a farmer

plants, the spacing of plants in the field, alteration of the field‘s biological community by

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weeding, and modification of soil chemistry with fertilizer applications are not only material transfers but also information transfers as the farmer restructures the organization of his farm

ecosystem.

3. Write short notes on

a) Non-equilibrium Ecology NEQ

The major principles of the equilibrium paradigm are:

• there is stable equilibrium point to all ecological systems – implies that all systems have a proper or

―natural‖ endpoint where, in the absence of perturbation, they will remain

• Ecological systems are closed – implies that systems are functionally and structurally complete, and

thus self- regulating.

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• The equilibrium paradigm has influenced conservation/management by fostering the beliefs that:

• any ecological system (forest, grassland, island, etc) is manageable as an independent unit;

• systems will maintain themselves in balance (all that is necessary to return a system to its natural

state is ―leave it alone");

• People and their activities are not part of natural systems. These beliefs are still implicit in many

(most) contemporary management practices.

b) Integrated energy- environmental planning for tourism

Environmental planning the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land

development with the consideration given to the natural environmental, social, political,

economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to achieve sustainable

outcomes.

Environmental planning concerns itself with the decision making processes where they are

required for managing relationships that exist within and between natural systems and human

systems. Environmental planning endeavors to manage these processes in an effective, orderly,

transparent and equitable manner for the benefit of all constituents within such systems for the

present and for the future. Present day environmental planning practices are the result of

continuous refinement and expansion of the scope of such decision making processes. Some of

the main elements of present-day environmental planning are:

Social & economic development

Urban development

Regional development

Natural resource management & integrated land use

Infrastructure systems

Governance frameworks

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The environmental planning assessments encompass areas such as land use, socio-economics,

transportation, economic and housing characteristics, air pollution, noise pollution, the wetlands,

habitat of the endangered species, flood zones susceptibility, coastal zones erosion, and visual

studies among others, and is referred to as an Integrated environmental planning assessment.[1] It

is the ability to analyze environmental issues that will facilitate critical decision making.

4. Discuss the constraints for energy /environment management in our country. Suggest

suitable remedial measures.

India has made significant strides in economic development since independence, successfully making a mark on the global economic arena. The economy‘s unprecedented growth, improved infrastructure along with the foreign fund inflows over the years has enabled India to reach

several milestones. In spite of these achievements, the Indian power sector encounters a series of challenges including availability of fuel, improper land acquisition reforms, delay in environmental approvals and financial health of the state electricity boards. These issues need to

be addressed for improvising the performance of the Indian power sector.

One of the major issues confronting the power sector is the availability of coal. The year 2011 saw more than 50% of India‘s thermal power plants struggling to get adequate coal supplies.

During Apr-12, the Indian thermal power plants witnessed an acute shortage of coal. It was estimated that around 25 of the thermal power stations have coal stocks that can potentially last for only 4 days. Interestingly, as per CEA, four plants had no coal stocks left for which they

relied on the day-to-day coal supply. Usually the demand supply mismatch is bridged through imported coal with the most favoured destinations usually being Australia, Indonesia and South

Africa. Not all countries permit Indian companies to buy mines freely. The coal is usually available in the world market at a global price which fluctuates daily, if the international coal mine is not owned by the Indian power company. Moreover the cost of coal transportation from

the coal rich countries to India also keeps fluctuating. The freight charges depend on the Baltic Exchange Dry Index. The transportation of coal falls under the dry commodity which depends on

the dry cargo freight rates. These freight rates are very volatile and usually depend on the demand of commodities to be transported and the supply of such freight accordingly. The current rupee depreciation has severely impacted power companies that rely on imported coal owing to

the additional cost incurred. Also, the transmission and distribution losses and low bargaining power with the state distributing companies impacts the overall profit margin for the generating

companies.

In the Union Budget 2012-13, the Government had ordered Coal India to sign a coal supply agreement for the next three years with those power generating companies who have entered into a power purchase agreement with the state distribution companies. Through this order, the

generation companies can mitigate the volatility risk in coal price for the next three years. But there are also other ways to address this issue and bridge the gap. The Government should open

up the coal mining sector to the private players or work under the public private partnership. Coal based power plants should have mines allocated to them to carry out their own mining. The Government should also improvise the existing coal distribution network across the country so as

to evenly distribute the coal to coal based power plants. Though e-auction of coal has been

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introduced under the initiative by mjunction (a technology company promoted by SAIL and Tata Steel), awareness among the end users is required under proper supervision.

Delay in environmental clearance of power projects is another obstacle for the power companies.

More than 70 power projects are awaiting environmental and forest clearance. While some power projects are awaiting environment clearance, some power projects require diversion of

forest land. The main reasons for the delay are usually attributed to the delay in submission in the environmental impact assessment report and environment management plan after the start of the project. In 2006, the Government of India allowed the private enterprise to build power stations

of more than 2,500 MW and sell power to the central government, which would sell it at cost to states that are prepared to pay for it. These projects were known as ultra mega power projects

(UMPP) projects. Many corporates applied for these UMPP, but most of these are under planning stage. Only four UMPP‘s were allowed including Reliance with three UMPPs at Sasan, Tilaiya and Krishnapatnam and Tata Power in Mundra. The environmental clearance became a

major obstacle in the implementation of these projects. For instance, the date of submission of the request for proposals of the Chhattisgarh power station was postponed nine times because the

environmental ministry declared the coal mines allocated to it as no-go areas. Lack of proper land acquisition laws further acts as an obstacle in the implementation of major power projects. The Government should implement the single window clearance to all the other upcoming power

projects to implement these projects at a fast pace.

Power sector financing is another area of concern. Banks mostly have major exposure to the state distribution companies. Most of the banks, particularly public sector banks, are about to clock

their maximum exposure limit in the power sector. Majority of the loans to the state distribution companies are usually guaranteed by the respective state governments. According to the Shungulu committee report, the accumulated losses of state electricity boards during the last five

years amounted to ` 1,790 bn excluding the subsidy. During FY10 alone, the financial loss of Discoms accounted to ` 570 bn excluding the subsidy. These losses are mostly attributable to the

poor managerial and operational practices of these companies along with the imbalance in the regulator tariff fixation. The viability of the power distribution companies have thus come under stake with losses on one hand and inadequate supply of fuel on the other. The continued lack of

policy reforms has further hampered the growth of the sector.

Though the sector suffers from various hurdles, Indian power sector stands sixth among the leading sectors of the Indian economy and attracted around US$ 4.6 bn in Foreign Direct

Investment (FDI) since 2000. The Indian power sector received strong investor interest during the 2008 to 2010 period as a result of the increasing government initiatives. In fact, Indian power

sector had attracted more than US$ 2 bn private equity investment funds during 2010. However, even as power sector remains one of investor‘s primary choices, they continue to adopt a selective and cautious approach.

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5. Summarize the advantages and limitations of each of the following proposals for

increasing world food supplies and reducing hunger over the next 30 years.

a. Cultivating more land by clearing tropical forests and irrigating arid lands

Arid lands are among the world‘s most fragile ecosystems, made more so by periodic droughts and increasing overexploitation of meagre resources. Arid and semi-arid lands cover around one-third of the world‘s land area and are inhabited by about one billion people, a large proportion of

whom are among the poorest in the world.

Forests, trees and grasses are essential constituents of arid zone ecosystems and contribute to maintaining suitable conditions for agriculture, rangeland and human livelihoods. In providing goods (especially fuelwood and non-wood products) and environmental services to the rural poor

and in contributing to the diversification of their household sources of income, forests and trees in arid zones boost poverty alleviation strategies and reduce food insecurity.

Roughly 6 percent of the world‘s forest area (about 230 million hectares) is located in arid lands (FAO, 2001). Trees outside forests (scattered in the landscape, in arable lands, in grazing lands,

in savannahs and steppes, in barren lands and in urban areas) have a vital role in arid lands, although it is difficult to assess their extent.

Availability of water – surface water, groundwater and air moisture – is usually the main factor limiting natural distribution of trees in arid lands, along with climate (rainfall, temperatures,

wind) and soil quality. Each tree species is adapted to certain conditions and is located in its ―niche‖. When optimal conditions are widely distributed, forests or shrubs may cover large areas.

More often, limited by water scarcity, vegetation is concentrated where runoff can accumulate or where groundwater is accessible. This leads to the uneven distribution of trees and bushes, for example in striped bush (fragmented bush stands), riparian forests, the deepest channels of

valleys (thalwegs) and oases, and isolated in the landscape.

However, the natural distribution of vegetation has long been altered by human activities. Deforestation and degradation of tree and shrub formations (mainly through conversion to agricultural use) and overexploitation of forests and woodlands (through fuelwood collection and

overgrazing) are among the major causes of soil degradation in arid areas. Furthermore, global warming is expected to result in rainfall decrease throughout most of the world‘s arid zones,

which will lead to more severe water scarcity and increased desertification risks.

b. Catching more fish in the open sea

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

Fishing may include catching other aquatic animals, such as molluscs, cephalopods, crustaceans, and echinoderms. The term is not normally applied to catching farmed fish, or to aquatic mammals, and marine mammals, such as whales, where the term whaling is more appropriate.

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According to United Nations FAO statistics, the total number of commercial fishermen and fish farmers is estimated to be 38 million. Fisheries and aquaculture provide direct and indirect

employment to over 500 million people in developing countries. In 2005, the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4 kilograms, with an additional

7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms. In addition to providing food, modern fishing is also a recreational pastime

c. Producing more fish and shellfish with aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial

fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish. Broadly speaking, the relation of aquaculture to finfish and shellfish fisheries is analogous to the relation of agriculture to hunting and gathering. Mariculture refers to aquaculture practiced in marine environments and in underwater habitats.

According to the FAO, aquaculture "is understood to mean the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding,

protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated." The reported output from global aquaculture operations would supply

one half of the fish and shellfish that is directly consumed by humans; however, there are issues about the reliability of the reported figures. Further, in current aquaculture practice, products from several pounds of wild fish are used to produce one pound of a piscivorous fish like

salmon.

Particular kinds of aquaculture include fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, mariculture, algaculture (such as seaweed farming), and the cultivation of ornamental fish.

Particular methods include aquaponics and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, both of which integrate fish farming and plant farming.

d. Increasing the yield per area of cropland

The world food production has increased substantially in the past century, as has calorie intake per capita. However, in spite of a decrease in the proportion of undernourished people, the

absolute number has in fact increased during the current food crisis, to over 963 million. By 2050, population growth by an estimated 3 billion more people will increase food demand.

Increased fertilizer application and more water usage through irrigation have been responsible for over 70% of the crop yield increase in the past. Yields, however, have nearly stabilized for

cereals, partly as a result of low and declining investments in agriculture. In addition, fisheries landings have declined in the past decade mainly as a result of overfishing and unsustainable

fishing methods.

Food supply, however, is not only a function of production, but also of energy efficiency. Food energy efficiency is our ability to minimize the loss of energy in food from harvest potential

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through processing to actual consumption and recycling. By optimizing this chain, food supply can increase with much less damage to the environment, similar to improvements in efficiency in

the traditional energy sector. However, unlike the traditional energy sector, food energy efficiency has received little attention. Only an estimated 43% of the cereal produced is available

for human consumption, as a result of harvest and post-harvest distribution losses and use of cereal for animal feed. Furthermore, the 30 million tonnes of fish needed to sustain the growth in aquaculture correspond to the amount of fish discarded at sea today.

A substantial share of the increasing food demand could be met by introducing food energy

efficiency, such as recycling of waste. With new technology, waste along the human food supply chain could be used as a substitute for cereal in animal feed. The available cereal from such

alternatives and efficiencies could feed all of the additional 3 billion people expected by 2050. At the same time, this would support a growing green economy and greatly reduce pressures on biodiversity and water resources – a truly ‗win-win‘ solution.

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