Karnataka is endowed with most magnificent forests which are around 20 percent of its geographical area in the county ranging from majestic evergreen forests of the Western Ghats to the scrub jungles of the plains. The Western Ghats of Karnataka about 60% of the Western Ghats are located in Karnataka are one of the 25 global priority hotspots for conservation and one of the two on the Indian subcontinent. Several economically important species such as Sandalwood, Rosewood, Teak, White Cedar grow naturally in these forests.
Karnataka boasts of the highest elephant and Gaur bison population greater than 6000 & 8000 respectively in India. Its forests hold some of the largest remaining populations of the endangered tiger and leopard.
Eco-tourism has been extremely popular in Karnataka, it was one of the first states in India along with Kerala which tapped the potential of Eco-Tourism. Jungle Lodges and Resorts, setup as a unit of Karnataka Tourism was established two decades ago with the vision of tapping the vast potential of Eco-tourism within Karnataka.
Major Eco-Tourism destinations in Karnataka cover a wide range of Eco-tourism options including Wildlife Safaris, Island Living, River Rafting, Angling and Organized Treks. Eco-tourism options for both Budget and Luxury options have progressively Two to three new eco-tourism circuits and or destinations are being added every year providing new avenues for travelers to experience Karnataka’s rich eco-diversity.
Eco-tourism provides the Urban Dweller an opportunity to experience various facets of Karnataka’s bountiful nature and wildlife. This has resulted in wider participation in conservation efforts from travelers who have experienced what nature has to offer.
Medical tourism, for example, which can be modelled around the provision of either elective or necessary surgical procedures, provides patients with an opportunity to undergo recommended medical procedures earlier and at a lower cost than in their own countries.
Medical tourism has linkages to and benefits other industries and sectors including insurance, real estate, advertising and telecommunications. Social benefits include the upgrading of medical facilities and capacity building of medical care providers.
The economic impacts of this type of tourism are demonstrated not only in foreign exchange earnings through increases in the volume of tourists and the average daily expenditure, but also in the extended average length of stay, employment, and investments in health care facilities and ancillary health-related services.
The trade off, depending on the level of demand and available resources, is that medical tourism can contribute to the crowding out of nationals, and an exodus of public health care workers into the private medical facilities, which offer better salaries.
In countries such as India, Singapore and Thailand, medical tourism has experienced tremendous growth as a private industry, as these countries have become known as low cost health care destinations.
In 2005, India hosted its first Medical Tourism Expo in London to promote the industry throughout Europe. It is now estimated that by 2011, medical tourism will contribute one billion dollars per annum to the country’s GDP, and in Thailand and Singapore the industry is expected to generate between two and three billion US dollars by 2012.
A successful medical tourism industry depends in part on efficient systems for information processing and for the pooling of equipment, patient assistance and post surgery treatment services; and accreditation processes of both the facilities and health professionals. Improved quantity and quality of professionals; linkages with wellness centres, insurance companies and tourism enterprises and ease of entry/exit procedures for patients and medical professionals are other essentials.
Another integral component in developing medical tourism is intra and inter-agency collaboration and co-ordination among ministries responsible for health, telecommunications, tourism, and foreign affairs. The private tourism sector, airlines, etc. must develop and share a common vision and joint strategy and develop integrated plans, for product development, marketing and promotion.
India has decided to open the Siachen glacier, the part under its control, for tourism activities. A trekking expedition, facilitated by the Indian army, has reportedly arrived in Leh and is in the process of the acclimatization and training needed before launching into the high altitude trekking zone. The last recorded international trekking expedition to the Siachen glacier took place in the early 80s, and the official permit for the Japanese expedition was granted by the tourism department in Islamabad.
In fact, there are two major developments taking place across the Siachen, the other being the United Kingdom and Indian military high altitude war game in Ladakh.
The unilateral and ill-timed decision to open Siachen for mass tourism clearly goes against the spirit of the peace building and dialogue process. It can actually cast a shadow over the bilateral detente, which has seen a fair degree of improvement and consistency during the last few years. The announcement could not have come at a worse time for president Musharraf, who is grappling with multiple political and legal challenges thrown at him by the political opponents, and also by Al-Qaida leaders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, through an open declaration of war.
When it comes to Siachen, it seems as if it is the Indian army and not the political leadership in Delhi that calls the shots. A few months back it was reported that Islamabad and Delhi are nearing an accord on demilitarization of the glacier when the Indian army intervened and scuttled the dialogue. Here again, it is Indian army chief General J. J. Singh, who has come forward to defend India’s position with regard to allowing trekking activities on the glacier, while India’s political leadership and bureaucracy are playing cool. See, it is not just Pakistan where the military leadership makes decisions.
Siachen is part of Baltistan, which is a major constituent of the federally administered Northern Areas of Pakistan. Before 1947, Ladakh wizarat was comprised of two districts, namely Baltistan and Ladakh. The wizarat had two capitals, Skardu and Leh, wherein the seat of the government moved alternately in the winters and summers. The entire Siachen area and the Kargil valleys were part of Baltistan, Kargil being one of the tehsils in the Baltistan district. All trekking expeditions to Siachen would commence from Skardu till the early 80s.
Siachen glacier was so remote and inhospitable a place that no human presence, let alone fighting, was observed during the wars between the two countries. There was no question of change in boundary in the area as a result of the1965 or 1971 wars. However, the last sentence of the July 1949 ceasefire agreement brokered by the UN Commission for India and Pakistan, does mention ‘Chalunka Khor (on the Shyok river) thence north to the glaciers’.
The provisional boundary agreement between Pakistan and China, which demarcates the boundary between the Xingjian province of China and the Northern Areas, also points to the tri-junction with Afghanistan on the west and the Karakoram Pass on the east. At that time, India’s protest saying that the portion ‘west of Karakoram Pass was under Pakistan’s unlawful occupation’, thus implying that the part was actually under Pakistan’s control.
It was only after 1982 that India started sending exploratory expedition from its high altitude warfare school to the area, which culminated in the moving of troops to the area in 1984, another unilateral action to which Pakistan responded kindly. Since then, Siachen’s treacherous sub zero climate has sucked in billion of rupees in military expenditures of both the impoverish countries and has counted for scores of lives, more due to frost bite and high altitude sickness than combat action.
There were times when both the countries were actually keen about negotiating terms of disengagement from the glacier. In 1989, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi arrived on an agreement for redeployment of troops from Siachen but the agreement was not implemented. India has since been insisting on an ‘authentication of actual ground position’ but the two sides have so far failed to evolve consensus methodology and a system to do so.
Lately, there have been reports of a growing perception among military leaders that the climate around the glacier has transformed, and the warmer temperature has brought down climate related causalities to a bearable level. Or perhaps, the forces stationed on the glaciers have adapted to the rough climatic condition. In any case, the change is being cited as one of the reasons behind the lack of interest in disengagement on the part of the India army, which occupies higher ground and were earlier more vulnerable to the extreme climatic effects.
Nonetheless, it is the sensitivities related to the climate change, which should have catalysed a peaceful disengagement. Siachen is the world’s largest glacier outside the poles, therefore, climate change occurring on and around the glacier will adversely affect the ecological well-being of the world in general, and Pakistan and India in particular. Faster melting or depletion of a massive glacier like Siachen can result in a corresponding rise in temperature and also an eventual rise in see level, which can further complicate challenges being posed by the phenomena of climate change at a regional and global scale.
The idea of a peace park in Siachan is the only win-win solution of the festering dispute, for a peace park would symbolise friendship and tolerance, be accessible to interested Indian, Pakistani and international trekkers, and more importantly, it would be a park where necessary environmental safeguards are followed in the interest of nature and posterity.
Speaking on the 23rd September 2007, India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, urged for the construction of a minimum of 500 new small-scale airports, in line with the country’s projected expansion within the regional airline industry. “The government is promoting regional airlines. That is where the traffic is … The US has 5,100 operational airports. Why can’t we have at least 500?”, said Mr Patel. His comments came as he laid the initial foundation stone at the site of a new development at the Behala Flying Club.Mr Patel did not detail a timescale for the 500 airports’ development. However, he did state that, since he took up his current post three years ago, 30 new airports had become operational.
The projected statistics relating to Civil Aviation in India are staggering. Over the coming decade, three million new positions of employment are anticipated to become available. By 2012, 650 additional airliners are expected to be in service – up from a present 350. This last factor, according to Mr Patel, means that “we will need more pilots”. He continued: “There are 1,000 pilots from abroad working in India now. We do not have enough pilots from India. It is good that a flying training institute has been set up here (Behala). We need similar institutions elsewhere as well.”
As previously reported in Airport International, a recent study suggested the need for India to develop 10 larger-scale airports by 2020. The cities hosting these potentially include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Nagpur and Pune.
Not so long ago, the notion of travelling on an airliner was an untenable dream for the majority of Indians. However, fast-tracked economic development has acted to render air travel more affordable.
India’s national airline is Air India, which operates all over the world. It currently has 135 aircraft within its fleet, of which the majority are from the Airbus family.
Kerala’s brand equity has been built with exclusive products such as Ayurvedic centres, the backwaters, its beaches, etc. By next year, the state hopes to add adventure tourism to it’s list of offerings.
Think Kerala and images of placid backwaters, the beaches, fishermen, tall coconut trees, fish curry and banana chips, Kathakali dancers, Kalaripayattu artistes, Ayurvedic spas, boat races… are all vividly replayed in your mind.By next year, Kerala hopes to add adventure tourism to it’s list of offerings, giving some serious competition to Karnataka.
In the past decade, the beauty of ‘god’s own country’ was well captured and presented to the world through an aggressive marketing strategy, that raked in the moolah, courtesy foreign visitors. But in the last couple of years, the magic seemed to have waned, though domestic travellers increased.
However, the Kerala Tourism officials were quick to sense the need to pull up their socks and launched a road trip across India to salvage their place as one among the most preferred destinations of India.
During one such road trip in Bangalore last week, Metrolife caught up with Secretary, Kerala Tourism Dr Venu V, who spoke about the road ahead for them.
“Bangalore is the most important metro as far as marketing is concerned. A significant part of domestic travel is from Karnataka and Bangalore forms the bulk of that.
For our road trip here, we have brought a large number of our partners for discussions as Karnataka is an important market for them. The road show is our attempt to build a newer, better image of Kerala for the discerning tourist from this State,” said Dr Venu.
To a question on which section of travellers they are now targeting, Dr Venu said, “All sections are important to us. As on December 2006, we had about four lakh international visitors and close to 60 lakh domestic travellers, a third of which visited pilgrim centres. Leisure travellers constituted 25 per cent of that number.
Now we are trying to build a strong base in the corporate market with activities and programmes that appeal to the younger active generation. For Bangalore, we are trying to offer Kerala as a destination for a long weekend. In the international sector, we will concentrate on Italy, Spain and Australia.”
Asked for his opinion on Karnataka’s tourism potential, Dr Venu said he loves travelling to Karnataka, especially it’s coastal belt, which is still vastly untapped for its tourism potential. Besides that, he said Karnataka has promoted it’s wildlife sanctuaries well.
“What you need is a marketing package to match what’s available.” He added that Kerala’s brand equity has been built with exclusive products such as Ayurvedic centres, the backwaters, its beaches, etc.
“We also have many companies offering adventure tourism nowadays. But Kerala government needs to get its act together and we are seriously working with the Forest Department. By next year, we will definitely have something exciting in place,” he said.
