India’s population exceeds one billion, her wild areas increasingly pressurized by population growth, economic expansion, deforestation, rampant poaching, and habitat destruction; her biodiversity disappearing at a rapid rate as a result.  Tourism, not excepting wildlife tourism, can also be a contributing factor, bringing with it a host of unwelcome and often unforeseen negative impacts – pollution, traffic, construction, a supplementary strain on resources, consequent social tensions…the list is endless.  

Accompanying these concerns however is the growing recognition that tourism can also bring an array of benefits, particularly to developing countries and isolated rural communities, which must be encouraged.  Wildlife tourism in particular has the potential to effect the greatest change since it is conducted off the beaten track in areas often bypassed by mainstream itineraries.  If its negative effects are minimized and it is developed in a responsible way that empowers local communities and contributes to the welfare of the natural environment, tourism has the potential to become the greatest tool for conservation in India and throughout the world. 

Our eco-responsibilities: sustainability principles and practices

Because we believe that wildlife travel should not be conducted to the detriment of its subject we aim to contribute in tangible ways to the natural environment that is the focus of our tours, operating with a responsibility towards the long term future of India’s natural heritage.  It is our ongoing commitment to minimize any and all negative environmental impacts of our operations while making positive contributions to the conservation of biodiversity and habitats. 

Furthermore it is our belief that responsible and sustainable travel to natural areas fosters better understanding and appreciation of the environment, eventually aiding conservation.  By making our tours informative and honest we provide a real insight into India’s wilds and the conflicts they face.

Making environmental awareness inherent in our office practices

We avoid the trend of promotional cd’s and limit printing of glossy brochures, preferring to rely on our website, email newsletters, and above all word of mouth as our main sources of information distribution and promotion, and on email as our main method of communication, thus reducing paper and plastic wastes at source.  Any stationary or publicity is printed where possible on recycled paper, or paper from a sustainable source.  Where we do place advertisements we do so in the magazines of prominent wildlife organizations, such as the Oriental Bird Club or Bombay Natural History Society, or in magazines that are a voice for conservation, such as Sanctuary Asia, to support their valuable work.

Money matters – local communities and the natural environment as an economic resource

Let’s put it simply; local communities often come into conflict with wildlife conservation, its advocates and practitioners through no fault of their own - when should the needs of wildlife exceed those of a family living in an isolated rural area on or below the poverty line?  Protected areas face severe challenges from rural communities as a result of encroachment, illegal grazing, poaching, man-animal conflicts and retaliatory killings, the demand, often external, for animal skins and parts, and shrinking forest cover to name just a few.  Wildlife and habitat protection requires strict enforcement but in a largely agrarian country such as India, where large numbers of people rely on their crops, livestock, and forest produce in particular fuel wood, for their subsistence and livelihood this asks for a considerable degree of compromise from already marginalized communities when they are further denied access to use of resources. 

No conservation initiative can be viable in the long term without the support of the local populace whose needs must be considered an integral part of the project.  However it has often been the case that the same local communities that are the foundation of conservation are also very often excluded from its benefits, in particular from the financial inputs of wildlife tourism.  If developed in a responsible way that empowers local communities by creating employment in areas off the beaten track, wildlife tourism and the resultant association between protecting and exhibiting wildlife riches and a healthier local economy indicates to local people the importance of conservation and the inherent potential of the natural environment as a sustainable economic resource. 

Without exception each of our tours, whether group or tailored, has been created following a great deal of reconnaissance, planning and expertise.  We are committed to providing financial benefits for the host community, with the intention that the environmental benefits of preserving wildlife into the future will be realized, strengthened in reality by the economical incentives of continuing wildlife tourism. 

We prefer to use small, locally owned and managed accommodation, preferably with some degree of environmentally sound practices, or in the least sympathy towards wildlife and its conservation, which ensures that funds created by our visits are channeled into local enterprises.  By employing local guides and encouraging the lodges we use to source their staff from their local community we also ensure that additional revenue is retained in the local community and that its members are given the opportunity to develop specialised knowledge and skills.  In addition our tour participants benefit from a guide with the best knowledge of an area, that of a local resident, and are given the opportunity to bring mutual understanding and respect between travelers and local communities. 

As an inherent part of their profile our birdwatching and wildlife tours take in parts of the country bypassed by conventional travel programs.  In addition, by incorporating some of India’s smaller or less publicized wildlife localities in our itineraries we aim to assist in the development of new locations with the aim of helping to publicize their natural riches both locally and globally, thus aiding their protection through wider awareness, while simultaneously supporting marginalized and often isolated communities.

Raising awareness among our tour participants

We provide all travelers, whether participating in a small group tour or a tailored itinerary, with simple guidelines on appropriate environmental practices during their tour, and on local etiquette to best allow them to adapt to their new social environs and act with due reverence to local cultures and customs.

We inform tour participants of the full picture, and will not hide or avoid the reality of environmental issues or conflicts facing the conservation of wildlife in an area, instead preferring to actively illustrate the problems to raise awareness of relevant conservation issues. 

Lessening our on-tour footprint as guests of nature

Our tour group sizes are limited to minimize both environmental disturbance and potential negative social impacts, and we prefer to explore mostly on foot, following designated paths, to avoid damage to valuable habitats.

We maintain safe and appropriate distances when observing wildlife and do not intrude on any animal or obstruct its natural movements.  We actively discourage unnecessary disturbance to all wildlife, in particular the over-use of tape-lures for birds, irresponsible driving or the harassment of wild animals during jeep safaris, and pressuring mahouts to get too close.  The same applies when searching for marine or riverine mammals, all of which are highly sensitive to disturbance and susceptible to injury from vessel propellers.  We fully appreciate and understand the desire to see as many species as possible (particularly with regard to birds) however we will not chase them just to notch up an impressive list, and nevertheless our sightings are extremely impressive with enviable success rates in terms of both target species and species numbers.

We do not guarantee any wildlife sightings, since this can generate an atmosphere reminiscent of a visit to a safari park or to the zoo; instead we encourage an enthusiasm for all forms of India’s wildlife and the experience of the wilderness in its magnificent entirety.  If you do miss a target species you can rest assured that you are contributing to the support of its habitat, and have a good reason to return!

Supporting contribution through financial contribution

In accordance with our belief that the profit made by wildlife travel companies should be shared with the wildlife whose existence they rely on we make regular donations to charitable organizations and projects as applicable to each of our tours, for example to the WTI, BNHS and TOFT – further details are provided in individual tour dossiers.

We make all of our tours ‘carbon neutral’ through donations to carbon sequestration companies that use the donations to offset the CO2 created.  We route our donations through projects that purchase wildlife corridors in India, making this particularly relevant to us.  We encourage our tour participants to offset the carbon emissions of their international flights through an additional donation.

As a member of TOFT we agree to consider, in addition to the above, a further set of responsibilities when visiting any Tiger Reserve.  These include choosing accommodation with the aims of TOFT in mind, ensuring appropriate operations and practice with regard to energy consumption, waste disposal, and water management, local employment opportunities, use of local produce, and support of local projects or enterprises, ensuring tailored tour participants are fully briefed about park regulations in order to avoid and/or report any activity that results in interference with the natural way of life of any animal when an accompanying tour leader is not present to act, and encouraging opportunities for clients to purchase local handicrafts.

Advocating a sustainable approach to wildlife tourism

Finally, we aim to present a responsible image to other tour operators and travel agents, to encourage the evolution of the travel industry into an effective tool for environmental sustainability by demonstrating that it is possible to invest in the cause of conservation and run a successful business.  We encourage all other representatives and agents that we work with to consider their own operations and to formulate and follow similar guidelines of practice.