Eco-tourism Development in Sundarbans: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Tourism is currently the largest industry in India, accounting for 15% of foreign exchange earnings, with eco-tourism emerging as the fastest-growing sector. While offering significant economic benefits, global tourism has been linked to environmental degradation and human rights concerns. It is essential to optimize the positive impacts of tourism in India while ensuring responsible management to protect the integrity of natural resources inclusive of forests and flora and fauna. The research reveals that millions of people in the Sundarbans impact one heavily rely on its resources, including forests and wildlife. However, the study observed that the forest degradation is escalating, leading to an increase in endangered and extinct species due to the unsustainable utilization of its resources. In practice, the Sundarbans and its surrounding areas offer significant potential for ecotourism. While the inhabitants of the Sundarbans-dependent surroundings are eager to develop various handicrafts, cultural activities, and processed food items that has a giant fee for the improvement of sustainable eco-tourism. it's far determined that fifty five percent  families are at once depending on woodland assets at special ranges and consequently they are able to earn around 15%  extra money in compare to their common annual income from the eco-tourism activities. The paper aims to offer an outline of the imaginative and prescient and present practices of ecotourism. For this reason, ecotourism have to be delivered with right monitoring, evaluation and management of ecotourism sites for boosting long term conservation.