Eco-tourism Often Involves Visiting Remote And Fragile Ecosystems
Sample essay
Of late, eco-tourism has been receiving a lot of attention. Many tourists, these days, are eager to visit offbeat travel destinations. They want to explore unexplored places and savour exotic experiences in the lap of Mother Nature. Needless to say, this practice of visiting places with fragile or highly sensitive ecology has raised a lot of concern. The influx of tourists can harm these places and even hurt indigenous communities. Sensitising tourists about the threats they might pose to these places and their inhabitants is the most effective solution to this problem.
Hordes of tourists are now visiting places like the Andaman Islands or Western Ghats. The Andaman Islands, for instance, is home to some indigenous communities that shun all contacts with the world outside. When tourists visit such places in large numbers, they destroy the peace of these communities. Worse still, they may introduce germs that can be deadly for the natives. In the worst case scenario, a single outbreak of a viral or bacterial infection can wipe out an entire community because these people have had no previous exposure to these pathogens and as such they do not have antibodies to resist them. Sometimes, the arrival of tourists hurt the local ecology. For example, in order to cater to the needs of tourists, more resorts and roads have to be built in areas with highly sensitive geography. This is already a big issue in many places in India, Africa and Latin America. Tourists also hurt wild life. Elephants, tigers, lions and leopards are driven out of their natural habitats to make the place safe for tourists.
As for the solutions, the most effective one is to create awareness. Not so long ago, a foreign tourist was killed by some tribal people in the Andaman Islands after he tried to convert them to his religion. These people do not even know what religion is and they did not take it kindly when an outsider tried to impose his belief systems on them. Such incidents can be prevented by simply educating the tourists about the do’s and don’ts of visiting such places. Interaction with tribals that live away from mainstream societies should be forbidden. This way, the natives can be saved from exposure to alien viruses and bacteria. Likewise, mindless infrastructure development in such places must not be permitted at all. People who visit a dense forest, desert or island should be willing to be content with bare minimum necessities. They should not expect five star facilities in such places. Instead of building hotels and resorts in such places, the government should promote homestays.
In conclusion, it is a fact that eco-tourism can destroy places with sensitive ecology. It can also hurt the native inhabitants of such places. Educating tourists about the importance of preserving such places and imposing restrictions on the number of people who can visit per day will certainly help.
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