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Abstract
Tourism in protected areas generates noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution and litter which can adversely affect human health, social well-being and destination sustainability. These pollutants should be checked and kept under controlled. The quality of lifestyle of the host community will potentially be degraded due to these pollutants which will lead to causing social tension. In this paper, we evaluate the perception of the host community regarding the pollution caused by tourism in Sunderbans Tiger Reserve by conducting a questionnaire survey. The data is collected from Bali islands of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve which is a popular island for tiger-man conflicts, hence has received lots of attention from tourism. Results show that there is an increase in water pollution and litter in the study area due to tourism.
Keywords
Tourism, Pollution, Impact of Tourism, Air Pollution, Noise Pollution, Water Pollution, Litter, Sunderbans Tiger Reserve.
Introduction
There is an association between environmental quality and the quality of life of the host community. To lead a healthy and contented life, there is a need for the surrounding atmosphere to be clean and healthy as well. Hence the importance of a clean environment is always been highlighted and given greater importance.
Tourism impacts the environment by the use of three areas which are transportation, activities, and facilities (Semenova, 2013). The impact on the natural environment ranges from plants to soils as well as wildlife (Eagles and McCool, 2002). There is a difference in the impact and level of damage caused by tourism on the natural environment and manmade environment however, the impact on the natural environment is not easily reversible (Raitz and Pusczkoi, 2002). The tourism industry is responsible for causing many forms of pollution which are air emissions, noise, solid waste, litter, and many more (Rath and Gupta, 2017). The use oftransport facility is increasing every year due to increase in tourist arrival. The impact can especially be seen in the case of air pollution as it has led to increase in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emission which is related to transportation energy use. The quality of air degraded and increase in the litter has been identified in protected areas due to tourism (Semenova, 2013). Noise pollution is also one of the ever-growing problems...