Tribes and biodiversity at risk from increasing tourism
Ecology is being destroyed by impact of visitors to areas inhabited by tribal groups, guides say
Jitu Jakesika was barely nine when foreign tourists started coming in groups to Kurli village in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
Jakesika, a member of the indigenous Dongria Kondh tribe, remembers the visitors wore sophisticated clothes, tasted local food and watched tribal girls dance. Some even inspired him to learn English and become a tour guide. But Jakesika, now 35, is worried about the increasing footfall of tourists in tribal villages, as this poses a threat to their indigenous culture and lifestyle.
“In some cases, tourists look at tribal people as commodities. Sometimes, they take photographs without permission or offer liquor or smoke cigarettes inside the village,” Jakesika said. “Our people feel uncomfortable with such behaviour.”
India counts 8.6 per cent of its 1.4 billion population as tribal – with their own cultures, food, clothing and lifestyles. The government and private agencies intend to use this uniqueness for tribal or eco-tourism.
Although the national strategy of eco-tourism calls for involvement of local communities before any protected area is identified for the purpose, this rule is often not followed, critics say.
One such project is a US$9 billion scheme under which New Delhi plans to create its own “Hong Kong” on land occupied by 240 indigenous Shompen tribespeople on Greater Nicobar Island. There are plans to build a megaport, city, international airport, power station, defence base and industrial estate in the area.
Nearly 40 international scholars have slammed the move as “genocide” of the Shompen tribe, who are nomadic hunter-gatherers. The academics have urged the government to halt the project.
A former senior tribal welfare department official, who worked with aboriginals in the Nicobar archipelago for more than three decades, said on condition of anonymity that the development would destroy natural resources.
The indigenous Jarawa tribe’s existence is already under threat from the construction of a highway cutting through their habitat in the archipelago, as tourist buses often stop to watch them “naked” or offer them food, thus making them vulnerable to diseases.
Tribal tourism has been expanding at lightning speed. Of the 62 tribes in Odisha, tourists travel to see 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) including the Bonda women, who wear multicoloured beads, and Dongria Kondh men, who sport aluminium neck rings, beads and coin necklaces.
In 2012, following the abduction of two Italian tourists by Maoists in the tribal belt of Daringbadi, the government banned foreign tourists in PVTG areas and slapped a three-year prohibition on photography and filming of tribal groups.
The restrictions were lifted in 2016. Now, the government invites “nature tourists” to experience wild landscapes sustainably, through camping, stays in ecoresorts, trekking and boating.
Benjamine Simon started tribal tourism in Odisha’s districts of Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Jeypore, Mayurbhanj and Koraput in 1977 for outsiders to learn about the tribes’ cultural heritage, housing and food through visits to weekly markets and certain areas permitted by local communities.
Simon is disappointed at how tourism is managed now, with rampant use of plastic bottles and packaged food.
“Many people have jumped into the tourism business without understanding that respect towards tribal people is key,” warned Simon. “When tourists visit a tribal village, they must give back to the community by planting a tree, promoting local art and craft and maintaining an ecofriendly travel approach.”
Forest and tribal rights researcher Tushar Dash said eco-tourism was promoted in several forested areas, such as the Simlipal tiger reserve in Mayurbhanj district inhabited by PVTGs. Such action, however, impinged on the habitat rights of tribes protected under India’s Forest Rights Act.
Rampant construction of tourist accommodation in these areas and frequent movement of tourist vehicles are destroying “critical biodiversity and ecology”, according to Dash.
“They are as destructive as any infrastructure and highway projects, since both aim to take away the land and resources of tribals,” Dash said. “Tribals hardly get any benefit from tourism.”
Social activist Soumitra Ghosh said the forest and tea garden areas in the north of West Bengal had been plagued by “unregulated” and “unrestricted” eco-tourism. He added that the government should clearly state the number of resorts or homestays to be built and the stakes tribespeople should hold in the tourism business, as well as annual limits on tourist footfall.
But businessmen in connivance with local politicians had been taking away tribal land by making them sign dubious documents or giving them very little money in exchange, Ghosh claimed. “It defaces the history of the landscape and culture while tribals remain mute spectators.”
In the state of Chhattisgarh, the government invested 992 million rupees (HK$93.3 million) to develop a tribal circuit covering Jashpur, Kunkuri and Mainpat. But in 2023, India’s supreme audit institution reported a series of drawbacks such as a lack of proper criteria for the selection of destinations, a failure to attract tourists in the previous two years in the tribal craft hub, a lack of drinking water, and a failure to enable local craftsmen to practise at artisans’ centres in these destinations.
Tribal rights activist Anubhav Shori said government agencies, settler businessmen and middlemen reaped all the profits in tribal tourism, while the locals were made to dance and cook for tourists with no ownership in the project.
To protest against such exploitation, 650 people from the Dhurwa tribe started sustainable eco-tourism two years ago by offering bamboo rafting and kayaking to about 40 tourists daily.
“They have taken ownership of their own resources by implementing ecological sustainability and self-governance,” Shori said. “Plus, the villagers don’t allow use of plastic and polythene to maintain the ecological balance.”