'Check on tourists inflow must for health of mountain ecosystem'

New Delhi, Jun 4 (UNI) Taking serious note of the adverse impact of human activities on the fragile mountain ecosystem of the country, an action plan under the newly announced National Environment Policy calls for regulating tourists inflow to mountain regions as one of the important measures.

The government should not allow tourists to mountainous resorts beyond the carrying capacity of these regions, it says.

It stresses that while providing infrastructure for tourists, sustainability of the facilities should be kept in mind. It recommends ''best practices'' norms in providing tourists access to ecological sources.

It wants unique mountain scapes to be considered entities with ''incomparable values'' in developing strategies for their protection. These entities are called so beacuse individuals and societies would not accept risks consequent to their degradation in return of money goods or services.

The action plan calls for adopting appropriate land use planning and watershed management practices for sustainable development of the ecosystem.

Adoption of best practices norms is also recommended for infrastruture construction in mountain regions to avoid or minimise damage to the sensitive ecosystem and despoiling of lanscape.

The authors of the policy note that mountain ecosystem is among the most fragile of ecosystems in terms of susceptibility to human activities.

There has been significant adverse impact on the system by way of deforestation, submergence of river valleys, pollution of fresh water sources, despoliation of landscape, degradation of human habitat and plantation of species not conducive to conservation of mountain environment and retreat of glaciers etc.

The most obvious causes of these are illegal logging and commercial fuel collection besides faulty construction of infrastructure, unplanned urbanisation and lack of enforcement of building bylaws in addition to large scale mining of minerals and excessive use of agricultural chemicals.

The underlying causes also relate to absence of conducive policies to enable local communities to derive adequate financial returns from afforestation and non-consumptive use of forest resources, they said.

UNI NAZ LR HT1055