Ecotourism in the Sundarbans

Ecotourism is meant to be an environmentally responsible form of travel to protected areas and should sustain the well being of the local people. It is a complex phenomenon as it involves many actors and is often misused to attract more tourists. Domestic and international tourism is very weak in West Bengal compared to the rest of India and the Sundarbans are seen by the government of West Bengal to have great potential to develop ecotourism. The Sundarbans are one of the poorest regions in West Bengal, because there is hardly any access to drinking water, health and education services and has a limited resource base. It is a region where illegal wood cutting, fishing and poaching is still endemic which makes it a big challenge to establish ecotourism. This work has the task to discuss how ecotourism is understood in the context of rural communities in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, India and to what extend ecotourism could be said to promote better living standards amongst the local population.