24. Issues and Challenges of Sustainable Tourism in Nainital, Uttarakhand

Nainital has a distinct identity with a wide variety of natural, rural and urban landscape of mountainous character. The focal point of the settlement, the natural lake of Nainital, continues to draw scores of visitors every season. In Nainital, presently, tourism is prevailing as ‘mass tourism’ with a mass appeal. The mass scale of tourism in an ecologically sensitive area is bound to be a delicate matter. The physical area around the lake is highly restricted bound by the slopes of surrounding ridges. The scope of expansion of the town seems to be highly improbable, until and unless it seeks to expand beyond the Municipal boundary. The vital question arises how to make tourism sustainable in this small but promising town which is practically perched on the local catchment area of a natural lake. Today, Nainital is looking for a development model which should uphold its position in the tourism market as well as save its ecological integrity; because in face of any ecological eventuality this mountain habitat will go into irretrievable loss.