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The Cauvery forming a series of waterfalls at Bharachukki falls in Chamarajanagar district.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
The romance of the rain, made popular in cinema, had evoked a new segment in travel: monsoon tourism. But natural calamities in many popular destinations across the country have dampened tourism prospects this rainy season. At the same time, it has also brought the focus back on the need to streamline tourism in ecologically-sensitive regions.
M. Ravi, Vice-President, Karnataka Tourism Forum, told The Hindu that the recent rain-induced damages in several parts of the Western Ghats have had a major impact on tourism prospects in the most popular destinations: Chikkamagalur, Kodagu, Wayanad, Sakleshpur, parts of North Karnataka, and Mangaluru. “It is raining heavily and people don’t want to travel. If it continues like this, then the Independence Day weekend will also go bust,” he said.
Whole chain hit
He said the recent calamities stretching from Uttara Kannada to Wayanad had affected the whole chain of tourism – from tourist transport to guides. “This is generally the case; tourism is affected first by anything from recession and calamity to a hike in fuel prices,” he said.
He further explained that to overcome the off-season of inbound tourism, wherein foreign tourists travelled between October and March, many States have attractive offers, especially during the monsoon, to entice domestic tourists, making the season popular.
Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Travel Operators’ Association, also said tourism to popular destinations in the Western Ghats had been impacted in the past fortnight with landslips in Uttara Kannada, red alert in Mangaluru and surrounding areas, and specific directions to keep away from popular waterfalls and other risky places in Kodagu and other districts.
Spiritual tourism too hit
“A lot of tourists are feeling that it is not safe to travel to the Western Ghats, especially with directions to stay away from waterfalls, etc by district administrations. Even spiritual tourism to places such as Kukke Subrahmanya and Dharmasthala has been impacted,” he added.
He also said the Wayanad tragedy has impacted travel not just to this destination, known for nature and wellness tourism, but also to Kodagu due to its proximity.
Focus on preservation
Amidst this dip in tourism, the spotlight has returned to the ecological sensitivity to the region. While the Karnataka government has announced the formation of a Western Ghats forest encroachment task force to clear illegal resorts, homestays, and all encroachments in the Western Ghats region, which covers 10 districts of Karnataka, environmentalists have called for deeper action.
“Land use or land cover changes lead to land degradation and make hillslopes more susceptible to instability. The past several decades the region has witnessed an intense disruption of native forest cover for alternative commercial activities – mushrooming of resorts under the guise of ‘eco-tourism’, mining, quarrying, monoculture plantations, agriculture, human settlements, linear projects, etc., in mountains and hills with undulating topography. In such cases, the climate emergency is evident from the recurring extreme meteorological events, resulting in high-intensity rainfall, flooding with mudslides or landslides, and the devastating loss of life with large-scale destruction of property,” said T.V. Ramachandra from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science. This, he said, necessitates the regulation of tourism or ecotourism in highly ecological sensitive regions of the Western Ghats.
“The government should come up with a time bound programme to evacuate all encroachers within a year. The government should consider incentivising local people to promote tourism at a local level, as in Goa. The decentralised option would curtail mushrooming of resorts and villas and the conversion of native forest cover in the ecologically fragile regions,” he added.
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