Barren areas of what was once lush forest
Tourism
has brought healthcare, education, roads, electricity and wealth to
some of the most remote, isolated communities in the Himalayas. On the
other hand, tourism has also had an enormous impact on the local
environment. The forests are being cleared at an unprecedented rate to
provide timber for the construction of lodges and fuel for cooking and
heating. Likewise, trees are being destroyed to develop infrastructure
for tourism activities.Recent studies have shown that lodges on average
use about 75kg of firewood each day during the peak season.
Furthermore,
the economic benefit gained from tourism encourages local farmers
to increase their size of herds of cows, goats and yaks, leading to yet
more deforestation as woodlands are being cleared to provide temporary
pastures and also because of over grazing.These actions often lead to soil erosion and potentially leads to landslides.It
has been estimated that 1.5 million hectares of forest cover is
disappearing every year in the Himalayan region.Experts say that due to
rapid deforestation in the parts of Himalayas could lead to
the extension of hundreds of plants and dozens of bird and animal
species. With an increasing number of tourists in the region, leads to an increasing pressure on the forests.So,
if deforestation continues at the same pace, the future of Tourism in
the Himalayas looks bleak. Therefore, we need to act before its too
late.
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