The Sundarbans: Sustainable tourism, livelihoods and economies involving Bangladesh and India

Abstract

The Sundarbans, considered as the tourism heartland of South Asia and compared to Amazon rainforest for its expanse and biodiversity of flora and fauna spanning over 36,000 square kilometers, is currently at risk of massive depletion. The disaster can be avoided through sustainable tourism that minimizes negative social or environmental impacts and conserve fragile ecosystem consisting of flora and fauna and their habitats. This sustainable tourism can draw upon its basic tenets from the ‘’Sustainable Development Goals’’ propagated by World Tourism Organization. For both Bangladesh and India, it is obligatory under the remit of sustainable tourism to shift policy focus from growth to equity, thus, paving the way for strong institutions capability of regulating the tourism industry and distributing assets to facilitate ‘pro-poor growth’ policies and actions. As the current sustainable tourism debate is patchy, disjointed and often flawed with false assumptions and arguments the discourse on sustainable tourism of the Sundarbans needs to be oriented towards a thoroughbred scientific level, a systemic perspective and an interdisciplinary approach.