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Draw a relation between emerging tourism industry and transformation of hazards into disasters. Also suggest some measures to mitigate negative impact of tourism on environment. 
(15 marks, 250 words)
Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries as well as the major source of foreign exchange earning and employment for many developing countries, and it is increasingly focusing on natural environments. However, tourism is a double-edged activity. It has the potential to contribute in a positive manner to socio-economic achievements but, at the same time, its fast and sometimes uncontrolled growth can be the major cause of degradation of the environment and loss of local identity and traditional cultures. Biological and physical resources are in fact the assets that attract tourists. However, the stress imposed by tourism activities on fragile ecosystems accelerates and aggravates their depletion. Paradoxically, the very success of tourism may lead to the degradation of the natural environment: by depleting natural resources tourism reduces the site attractiveness to tourists, the very commodity that tourism has to offer.
Negative impacts from tourism occur when the level of visitor use is greater than the environment's ability to cope with this use within the acceptable limits of change. Uncontrolled conventional tourism poses potential threats to many natural areas around the world. It can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts such as soil erosion, increased pollution, discharges into the sea, natural habitat loss, increased pressure on endangered species and heightened vulnerability to forest fires. It often puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local populations to compete for the use of critical resources.
Tourism development and excessive human interference in in disaster prone areas may turns even small hazards into disaster. It has various negative impacts like, depletion of natural resources, water resources, land degradation, pollution (Air, Noise, solid waste, littering, sewage), destruction and alterations of ecosystem. Degradation of attractive landslide sites, such as mountain tops and slopes.
Therefore it is necessary to maintain a balance between use and regeneration of resources, which is called sustainable development. Development of tourism as an industry is also a step towards economic development, which may also have some negative impacts on the country. We know that sometimes anthropogenic activities supplements transformation of hazards into disaster, like urbanization in hilly areas, development of infrastructure like roads, railways and bridges triggers the incidents of landslides, earthquake, and avalanches.
These all negative impacts have potential threats to transform even small hazards into disasters. Therefore tourism in India should be developed in such a way that it attracts tourists from around entire world, and entertains them in such a way that is minimum intrusive or destructive to the environment, in short Eco-tourism should be adopted, which means ecologically sensitive tourism, keeping in mind the sustainable growth of the country.

Additional Information on Eco-Tourism – 

Tourism industry in India is growing and it has vast potential for generating employment and earning large amount of foreign exchange besides giving a flip to the country’s overall economic and social development. Eco-tourism needs to be promoted so that tourism in India helps in preserving and sustaining the diversity of the India’s natural and cultural environments. The International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1992 lists tourism as the second major threat to protected areas. Owing to the increasing negativities of tourism, several authors reiterated that tourism industry should grow carefully and in a sustainable manner.
The Rio+20 Outcome Document “The Future We Want” highlights the role of sustainable tourism so as to come out of the adverse effects of tourism  The United Nations defies sustainable tourism 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.

Characteristics of Ecotourism 

According to Patterson (2002), characteristics of an ecotourism business are that it: § Have a low impact upon a protected area’s natural resources and recreation techniques.
§  Involve stakeholders (individuals, communities, ecotourists, tour operators and government institutions) in the planning, development, implementation and monitoring phases
§  Limits visitation to areas, either by limiting group size and/or by the number of groups taken to an area in a season
§  Supports the work of conservation groups preserving the natural area on which the §              experience is based.
§  Orients customers on the region to be visited.
§  Hires local people and buys supplies locally, where possible.
§  Recognizes that nature is a central element to the tourist experience.
§  Uses guides trained in interpretation of scientific or natural history.
§  Ensures that wildlife is not harassed.
§  Respects the privacy and culture of local people