Documentation

Chilika is a RAMSAR wetland with a complex socio-ecological and political landscape. In the early
2000s, tourism was introduced into Chilika. However, a focus on infrastructure without adequate
planning, and local complexities have led to an ecotourism model that made existing issues worse.
This photo story explores the tourism story of Chilika.

The proposed draft EIA Notification falls short in many ways, particularly with respect to tourism. It fails to take into account that tourism requires a robust environmental scrutiny. The COVID-19 crisis has brought out to the world the increased need for robust environmental protections. Given the learnings from this crisis, it is important to take this time to rethink and restructure the EIA framework in India, which can be the lifeline of environmental governance, bringing in the balance between environmental sustainability and development.

The World Heritage Site (WHS) of Hampi is a lived landscape.The site is a dynamic, riverine, agricultural, socio-cultural ecological production landscape. The key threat to the site’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is the current extremely limited definition and understanding of the site. As a consequence of this, the State Party’s approach to management is bereft of community participation.

Jan Mosedale referring to the work of other scholars writes, “After the first phase of roll-back neoliberalism (de-regulation), institutional arrangements were restructured and new forms of state organization, modes of governance and regulation were rolled out and ‘normalized’ (Peck and Tickell 2002). These roll-out strategies served to produce a new network of institutional and regulatory relations, which were conducive to stabilising the neoliberal trajectory and seemingly soften its effects. This institutional restructuring, the re-negotiation and transfer of responsibilities, led to new forms of governance in a different relational network of state, parastatal and non-state regulatory organizations across
space”.

This is in response to the role played by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in the matter before the Supreme Court (WP 109/2008), challenging the constitutional validity of the Schedule Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). Vide an interim order, the Supreme Court of India, on 13.02.2019 passed an order for the eviction of thousands of adivasi communities on the basis of rejected claims under the the FRA.

We are raising concerns on sexual harassment of women at the workplace in the tourism sector as well as the industry by advocating against the commodification /objectification of women in tourism and making the tourism processes and the industry accountable to such concerns. 

EQUATIONS response to the Notification issued by HWHAMA regarding seeking public opinion for preparation of revised Master Plan 01 for Hampi Local Planning Area

EQUATIONS objections to the draft notification dated 3rd October 2018 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notifying Ecologically Sensitive Areas in the Western Ghats region.

The policy proposes to declare private areas along boundaries of protected areas, which are a minimum of 100 acres, as private wildlife conservancies. The policy states that any land that is declared as a private conservancy cannot have activities such as agriculture, horticulture, pig farming etc. The owners of such private wildlife conservancy can use 5% of the land for building infrastructure for tourism.

Coastal tourism has been an important form of tourism in India. The beaches of Goa and Kerala have been seeing tourism since the 1960s. Since then, other coastal states, especially, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal has seen increasing tourism on the coasts. Central governments and state governments have also supported coastal tourism by creating a conducive policy environment.

A letter written to UNESCO about the situation in Hampi, where the local community is once again facing the threat of eviction, demolition and loss of their livelihood options.

Joint Statement of the International Support Centre for Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (Tim-Team), Global Anti-Aerotropolis Movement (GAAM), Third World Network (TWN), Consumers Association of Penang, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, and Tourism Advocacy & Action Forum

The Government of Manipur in its endeavour to provide job opportunities and overall progress in the State, has been pushing tourism industry as the key source of economic growth. In the process, infrastructure development has been given prime attention. In order to facilitate the boost of tourism, the Manipur Tourism Policy 2014 which claims that Manipur with its inherent tourism potential, rich cultural heritage and vibrant pool of youth, with excellent grip over english language is an ideal place for promotion of Tourism as its main industry and sector to generate employment substantially.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has approved the adoption of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. Our quest of probing tourism from the lens/ point of view of “Who Really Benefits from Tourism?” brings into the foreground certain realities, issues and concerns that makes us question - is tourism in the country actually moving towards sustainability or is sustainable tourism an oxymoron? Sustainable tourism, which has been chosen as the cornerstone to guide tourism development in the years to come is the step in the right direction. However, the concern is on how these ideas will be translated into actionable points. The fear is that in the absence of a clear understanding of what the framework, guidelines & action plan of sustainable tourism encompasses,, it then is left to be interpreted by each entity in the way they want it, to meet their interest and will continue to remain on paper unless given serious thought and delivered upon. Our concern stems from the way tourism has grown in this country, the dilution of regulatory frameworks to push tourism, the policies that are over loaded with the industry perspective of tourism development and negligible attention being given to the perspectives of local communities and looking into the wide impacts of tourism. To illustrate our point of view, we build the discussion based on two case studies that were adjudicated by the National Green Tribunal, one with respect to coastal tourism and the other hill tourism. The time is running out, unless “Sustainable Tourism” is not adopted in true spirit and practice, it is not long when even the concept of “Sustainable Development” will be up for sale.