Introduction

There have been successful ecotourism initiatives in the country and more are beginning to be established. These initiatives are from various parts of the country, ranging from the Trans Himalayan region of Ladakh to the tropical forests of Kerala. This chapter attempts to showcase some of them. The chapter provides an insight into how these initiatives were established along with a brief analysis of what has emerged from some of them. Initiatives in ecotourism, range from community driven ones such as the one in Ladakh, to those supported by the Forest Department as in the case from Periyar in Kerala. What is interesting to note is that each followed a rather unique methodology of planning their respective initiatives. The Dzongu endeavour used the Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action (APPA) methodology. The ecotourism planning at Korzok Lake in Ladakh used local people to impart training that they themselves had gone through. The Klionoma Village in Nagaland carried out an environmental impact assessment to first ascertain the impacts from tourism and then plan a sustainable tourism initiative. It is significant that each ecotourism effort has been supported by an NGO or in some cases even the State Government. Despite geographical and other differences, many points of commonality arise from these case studies. Primary among these is the importance of a local community institution to carry out ecotourism activities, facilitate benefit sharing and to resolve any potential conflicts.