The long, hard trek ahead: Why the Budget boost to eco-sustainable tourism needs a careful, cautious approach

Ajeet Bajaj’s phone has been ringing non-stop since he returned last week from Africa, where he was once again scaling Mt Kilimanjaro. The calls were not merely to congratulate Bajaj, who as vice-chairman of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality was part of the delegation that had briefed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of the Union Budget. These reflected the excitement over her announcement of promoting ecologically sustainable trails and adventure tourism in the Budget speech.Allocating Rs 2,438 crore to the tourism sector, though a dip from Rs 2,541 crore in the previous fiscal, Sitharaman emphasised on developing eco-sustainable mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, along with lesser-known landscapes like Araku valley in the Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai in the Western Ghats. Positioning tourism as a driver for generating jobs and regional growth, she announced initiatives like upskilling 10,000 guides across 20 iconic tourist sites through a pilot scheme in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management.For Bajaj, who heads the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, this recognition is a major morale-booster. “It was heartening to see tourism emerge as a focus area,” says the Padma Shri awardee, adding that the step could be a game-changer for the industry.Globally, adventure tourism is already a $683 billion industry. According to the Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024 report, published by the World Economic Forum, India is ranked 39 among 119 countries. As per the India Tourism Data Compendium 2024, in global tourism, the country accounts for 1.45 per cent of the total international arrivals and 2.1 per cent of worldwide tourism receipts. India is being viewed as an emerging adventure hub with the Himalayas, Western Ghats, and coastal regions offering trekking, river rafting, paragliding, and scuba diving experiences, it said.Two days after the budget, Uttarakhand opened 83 major Himalayan peaks, including Nanda Devi, for trekking and mountaineering expeditions. The state government also waived off expedition-related charges such as peak fees, camping fees, environment fees.Regulating the sectorAccording to Bajaj, the country’s natural heritage ranks among the world’s best and adventure tourism can be a powerful tool to integrate India’s far-flung regions into the economic mainstream, and allow the benefits to percolate to remote local communities. “The focus on adventure tourism will also help regulate the sector in the long term,” he feels. “The idea is to use existing trails, signpost them, set up homestays and support local people along the way,” he says. “We will keep to wilderness areas as much as possible. Locals will be the custodians of the trails. The critical thing for adventure tourism is the need to ingrain the ‘leave no trace’ ethos. As operators, we have to leave our beautiful wilderness areas cleaner than we find them.”Equally critical is the free, prior, and informed consent of local communities, particularly forest dwellers and pastoralists, before any decision is taken to expand trails, suggests Dr Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, founder of the Nature Conservancy Alliance in Jammu and Kashmir.For nomadic communities such as the Bakarwals and Gujjars, expanding trekking routes often disrupts migration corridors, grazing lands and restricts forest access. “While a few may gain short-term income, the long-term costs — livelihood insecurity, cultural erosion, and ecological loss — are borne by many. Given that 80-90 per cent of the region’s economy depends on agriculture, horticulture, and pastoralism, undermining water and rangeland security in the name of tourism is deeply misguided,” says Dr Rasool.Cost to environmentAny proposal for new or expanded trails must begin with the acknowledgment that mountain ecosystems are already overstressed, warn environment experts.Mountaineer and climate professional Parth Joshi says sustainable trail planning must begin with scientific carrying-capacity assessments, seasonal limits, and route diversification. “Unchecked growth backfires, and infrastructure-focused tourism development that ignores ecological thresholds can quickly become self-defeating,” he points out. Sharing a recent example of Stok Kangri, a popular trekking peak in Ladakh, where local communities and tour operators attributed depleting water quality and receding glaciers to overtourism and were forced to put a ban on trekking, Joshi says, “Across several popular trails in the Himalayan region, rapid trail popularity and increase in tourism numbers have often outpaced planning for waste, water, safety and local capacity.”Base camp of Stok Kangri in Ladakh where trekking had to be banned due to overtourism. Photo courtesy: Parth JoshiRather than chasing large tourist numbers, planners should prioritise quality of experience and safety, ensuring trails regenerate ecologically and remain viable for local livelihoods over the long term, urges Joshi. “The goal should not be to maximise access everywhere, but to protect ecological integrity while sustaining tourism-based livelihoods.”“There must be mandatory cumulative environmental impact assessments, not fragmented, project-wise clearances, besides glacier- and watershed-level studies, climate vulnerability assessments and scientifically enforced carrying-capacity limits,” says Dr Rasool. Without adequate safeguards, the term ‘ecologically sustainable’ remains rhetorical rather than real, he points out.Existing treks such as Kashmir Great Lakes and Tarsar-Marsar are already showing visible ecological stress with piles of plastic accumulation, human waste near alpine lakes, and contamination of freshwater sources, says Dr Rasool. “Mountains do not have the capacity to absorb or process such waste. Increased footfall from new trails will inevitably magnify pollution, degrade fragile water bodies, and threaten downstream drinking water systems. This is no longer a tourism issue; it is a water security and public health concern.”The most pressing environmental issues caused by the current mountaineering tourism in India, Joshi argues, are “unmanaged solid and human waste, contamination of high-altitude water sources, soil erosion, degradation of glaciers, and growing disturbance to wildlife”. These impacts, he says, are magnified by short operating seasons and increasing climate volatility, which compress tourist activity into narrow windows, accelerating ecological stress. “The Everest region offers a cautionary tale. Decades of climbing have left thousands of tonnes of waste, prompting repeated clean-up drives and strict regulations, including a steep rise in climbing fees, yet the damage continues unabated. In India, similar pressures are visible along heavily crowded Himalayan routes such as the Gangotri-Gaumukh corridor, where high footfall has strained waste management systems and fragile alpine ecosystems.”Need for ‘better connectivity’What is lacking is not attractions, but accessibility, says Kullu-based Chandan Sharma, who runs trekking company UpNorth. “The idea of developing trekking and hiking trails may sound progressive, but it misses a far more fundamental requirement — basic infrastructure. We are losing foreign tourists not because our destinations are unattractive, but because reaching them is difficult, time-consuming, and often exhausting.”The need of the hour is the development of highways, regional airports, and reliable approach roads to these remote and scenic locations, he says.“Comfortable, safe, and efficient connectivity is what truly encourages international tourists to visit and return. If India wants to compete globally in tourism, infrastructure must come before promotion,” says Sharma.Safety concernsIncidents like the death of nine trekkers from Karnataka in a blizzard during the Sahastra Tal trek in Uttarakhand in June 2024 and a British hiker sustaining fatal rib injuries after a fall during his descent on the Dhauladhar trail from Dharamkot to Triund in Himachal Pradesh in February 2025 highlight risks posed by unpredictable weather, unregulated trails and inadequate preparedness.Emergency response needs to evolve from reactive, event-driven rescues to institutionalised preparedness, says Joshi. “Equally important is clear coordination and accountability. Rescue protocols must have defined roles for civil authorities, local administrations, tour operators and private rescue providers, rather than relying disproportionately on the armed forces or ad-hoc responses by the disaster management authorities.”Acknowledging the need to develop adventure sports in a safety-conscious manner, Bajaj says the association has drawn up safety protocols, and is working with state governments and ministries on a national framework.As India charts its next steps on the adventure tourism trail, Dr Rasool offers a cautionary note, “There can be no economy without water, no tourism on degraded mountains, and no development that sacrifices future generations for short-term gains.”

The long, hard trek ahead: Why the Budget boost to eco-sustainable tourism needs a careful, cautious approach

The central government's push for adventure tourism in the Budget is welcome but it raises questions of safety, sustainability and ecological cost

Seema Sachdeva

The long, hard trek ahead: Why the Budget boost to eco-sustainable tourism needs a careful, cautious approach

The central government's push for adventure tourism in the Budget is welcome but it raises questions of safety, sustainability and ecological cost

Seema Sachdeva

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