Sustainable Bird Based Tourism in India's Remote North-East Frontier

Abstract

Arunachal Pradesh is the most biodiverse Indian state situated in its north-east with the second highest breeding bird diversity in the world. Despite this, the area did not exist in bird-based tourism map till as late as a few years back owing to remoteness and lack of proper infrastructure and documentation. An innovative community based ecotourism initiative started in 2006, has catapulted one of the protected areas, namely Eagle-nest Wildlife Sanctuary of this state to one of the top birding destination of the world in a very short time. After a thorough documentation of the birdlife of the area by a qualified researchers' team, basic infrastructure was created through grants from external donors. Today the high quality low volume bird based ecotourism is completely managed by local Bugun tribal community and provides employment to few locals besides contributing to Bugun community welfare funds in a sustainable manner without any external support. The community today takes pride in the activity and also ensures that the forests are well preserved. The innovative aspect of the initiative is a complete management by the community with no support from the Government, making it truly sustainable.