Himalayan Tourism & UN-SDGs

Being Native Uttarakhandi, my 1st  love will remain  for this Himalayas and never miss any opportunity to visit other mountain regions  across the borders and learn from the local communities with special focus on its art & culture, rich biodiversity & sustainable economy. Be it Himalayan villages, Hindu Kush Range or European Alps... Thanks to PHD Chamber  of Commerce for inviting me to share my thoughts, experience  on responsible   tourism  and link them with  UN-SDGs ( Sustainable Development Goals) with Himalayan Tourism.  It was highly exciting when you have  enlightened Minister for Tourism, Uttarakhand Govt.   Shri Satpal ji Maharaj & other Important stakeholders  on the other side of dias , listening  u with full attention. With growing number of villages turning out to be ghost  villages (more than 1700 villages declared  Ghost Villages  by Committee working on Migration), its  high time we should think and link their issues with sustainable livelihood options to stop or check growing trend of migration from High land areas to low land regions in search of petty jobs. It  was news   to me to know that almost one billion people live in mountain areas, and over half the human population depends on mountains for fresh water, food and clean energy. Yet mountains are under threat from climate change, over exploitation and natural disasters, with potentially far-reaching and devastating consequences, both for mountain communities and the rest of the world   As defined by UN- WTO- Sustainable Tourism is defined as “Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities”.

Delighted to see seriousness of new Govt   to promote   new sectors  in Uttarakhand (apart from Char Dham) and link them with responsible  & ethical  tourism under SDGs

My compliments and best wishes.