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23

Sustainable Bird Based Tourism in India’s


Remote North-East Frontier
Dhananjai Mohan and Ramana Athreya
1Professor,Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. dmohan@wii.gov.in
2Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

rathreya@iiser.ac.in

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.

1. BACKGROUND
There are more than 10,000 species of birds in the world [i,ii]. Their interesting behavior patterns, often
colorful appearance, the ability to fly, varied and sweet vocalizations and omnipresence have made
them especially attractive to humans. As a result a large number of people pursue the hobby of bird-
watching. This hobby has almost assumed the status of industry in some countries like the USA where
birdwatchers were estimated to have spent US$25 billion in 2000 [iii] and US$87 billion in 2006 [iv].
In Britain where almost a third of the population indulges in this hobby to a greater or lesser extent, a
single NGO, the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, has nearly 1 million members.
The Indian subcontinent hosts nearly 13% of the world’s bird species [v]. Even though the number
of birdwatchers is still low in India it is steadily increasing. Sen (2010) estimates nearly 45000 Indian
birdwatchers presently active in India. In addition a substantial number of birdwatchers visit India from
other countries particularly from Europe and North America.
Organized bird-watching in India was initiated in the wetlands of Keoladeo Ghana National Park,
more popularly known as Bharatpur Bird sanctuary. Originally a duck hunting reserve of the princely
state of Bharatpur, it became a sanctuary in 1956 and was subsequently upgraded to a National park in
1981. The sanctuary is synonymous with bird tourism in India in the popular consciousness. Following
its example in conservation of wetlands and their biodiversity, a large number of wetland bird
sanctuaries were set up in India (e.g. Nawabganj, Patna and Lakh Bahosi Bird Sanctuaries in Uttar
Pradesh state; Sultanpur and Bhindawas Bird Sanctuaries in Haryana state). However, few of them
could become significant bird tourism destinations. The growing recognition of the attraction of forest
birds in the 1980s and 1990s added an important dimension to the growth of bird tourism in India.
Organized foreign bird tour groups started visiting forest destinations and documenting the birdlife
therein to facilitate bird-watching. The Government assisted this process in emerging destinations like
the Corbett Tiger Reserve landscape by training nature guides in the hitherto neglected skills of bird-
watching. Recognizing and catering to a growing market Kazmierczak & Singh [vi] came out with the
first ever guide to Indian bird-watching destinations covering over 75 locations across the country.
Ironically, the richest area of the country in forest bird diversity remained largely untouched by these
developments. Though Kazmierczak & Singh [6] described a few locations in the north-east India, only

Volume 3 · Number 1 · 2011


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