Residents and environmentalists in Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru have warned that tour operators are taking visitors to remote natural sites without Forest Department permission. Rising footfall, fuelled by social-media videos of waterfalls and blooming Neelakurinji, is leaving plastic waste and threatening forests, water sources and wildlife habitats.
Hidden spots are becoming an increasingly popular tourism phenomenon and causing grave environmental problems in the Western Ghats of Karnataka state. The residents of the Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts have complained that private tour operators are leading tourists to distant hills, waterfalls and forests without getting permissions from the Forest Department.
Social media is responsible for the rise in interest towards hidden spots. Several videos depicting secluded waterfalls, trekking locations and bloom of Neelakurinji flowers have attracted crowds of tourists to some locations, which were hitherto known only to locals. Even though such spots look picturesque, many of them are located within or near the vicinity of protected forests, wildlife habitat and ecologically fragile grasslands where no number of tourists can be accommodated safely.
Tourists are said to be leaving plastic bottles, wrappers of snacks and food items as garbage. Footfalls of tourists may crush and damage sensitive vegetation and even lead to pollution of water sources that have been provided by the streams. Tourist activity may prove to be disturbing to the wildlife, which includes elephants and increase the risk of human-animal confrontation.
To counter this problem, the Karnataka Forest Department has taken stringent steps against unauthorised commercial trekking in Kodagu district. The travel agencies and tour organisers have been cautioned to stop advertising and arranging illegal trek routes. The authorities have stated that violation of restrictions on visiting reserve forests constitutes an offence as per the Karnataka Forest Act. Moreover, the organisers may face civil and criminal liability for injuries or deaths of tourists on such excursions.
Environmentalists in Chikkamagaluru have also appealed to district authorities not to allow private organizations to indulge in unauthorized adventure tours within forest areas. Tourism should neither be banned completely but should be managed with the help of permits and qualified local guides, in addition to having limits on the number of visitors and waste disposal restrictions.
Western Ghats is one of the most bio-diverse regions of India and its isolated terrain is highly susceptible to reckless tourism. For its protection, cooperation between authorities, tour operators, locals and tourists is essential. “A hidden place” must not turn into a damaged place just because it is known to everyone through the Internet.
