PLANNING FOR GREEN TOURISM AND INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT OF ASHTAMUDI LAKE REGION, KOLLAM, IKERALA

Abstract

The Tourism industry is the world's fastest growing industry, and has been an important part of economic development of many of the developing nations. Trends indicate that tourists are becoming increasingly interested in higher quality tourist experiences with particular interest in cultural, historic and natural sites. Yet, at the same time, tourism, when not -properly organized, has every potential for environmental degradation and adverse effect on the ecological balance. Tourism plays an important role in present day, as it is realized that major part of the tourist prefers landscaped water bodies. Green Tourism is a purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the cultural and natural history of environment, taking care not to alter the integrity of the eco-system, while producing economic opportunities that make conservation of natural resources beneficial to the local people. The backwaters are special hydrographic feature of the Kerala state. These are long narrow lagoons, lying parallel to the coast, but separated from it by an equally narrow stretch of land, confined in -Kerala state. The Investigator has thorough knowledge about the present environmental and socio-economic crisis of these inland water bodies of the Kerala state, since he belongs this state and also undertaken studies pertaining to the problems, he has chosen Ashtamudi Lake zone for conducting this research work. The Ashtamudi Lake system forms the lifeline for the settlements around, as it provides extensive facilities for inland fishing and coir making. Many parts of this scenic Lake have been polluted, mainly due to sewage and waste disposal from the city area, and the discharges of waste from surrounding settlements and the port area. The polluted water of the Lake, which seeps in to the wells of the Lake shores is a major health hazard for many who living around the Lake and depends on wells for drinking water. The deteriorating water quality has severely affected the local tourism industry, although Ashtamudi Lake region has enormous potential for V tourism development. Other recent negative developments include sedimentation, conflicting use, developing urbanization, reclamation and sand mining activities. Having the aforesaid knowledge in mind, the Investigator has conducted a detailed study in the study area under various aspects like, demographic, socio-economic, infrastructure development, environmental and tourism development. Survey research methods have been employed in this investigation and the results of various types of analytical work have been discussed in different angles and inferences have been evolved based on thorough discussion. A set of recommendations has been made as part of the planning model to have an integrated development of the study area. The research work recognizes that, efficient management system is very much essential, which shall be integrated with the region's overall development, Green Tourism can be an effective tool for the development of the region in all respects that will pave the way for steady integrated development.