Conversation with Dr. Bubesh Guptha to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Domestic Tourism

 

Conversation with Mr. Bubesh Guptha, founder of Universal Eco-Foundation

 

Mr. Bubesh Guptha is the founder and director of Universal Eco-Foundation.  The organization is based out of Puducherry and its work revolves around spreading awareness about environment and wildlife through educational tours, nature walks, bird watching and various awareness activities. The organization is three years old and presently operates in two areas, the Art and Craft Village in Puducherry and near Kazhuveli Lake situated in Tindivanam taluk of Villupuram district.

 

As the conversation with Mr. Guptha unfolded, the magnitude of impact that COVID-19 has got on the livelihood of all categories of people were revealed. Universal Eco-Foundation conducts request based eco-tourism activities like educational tours, nature walks or bird watching for students, government officials, researchers etc. On an average more than 500 tourists visit the Art and Craft Village of which around 200 people (mainly students) are received per month for such activities. However, since there has been a complete country wide lockdown, the Art and Craft Village is also closed for tourists. Bubesh sees this to have a grave concern for people whose livelihood is dependent on such tourist spots. The Art and Craft Village in Puducherry is a place to promote handicrafts. Artisans from Puducherry and Tamil Nadu have shops here where they sell these products to the tourists. As per early April, though the artisans were allowed to produce their products, they could not sell them resulting into a major loss of income. Other service providers such as boat operators whose livelihood are related to tourists are also facing great economic stress. Mr. Guptha says that Universal Eco-Consultant that sells products such as wildlife paintings and sculptors to various Forest and Tourism Departments have also accrued a loss of around 5 lakhs. However, he is hopeful that the world will learn its lesson from this extreme event. He is of the opinion that the pandemic will have a positive outcome on the growth of sustainable tourism. Presently, strategies followed by Bubesh Guptha and his team include collaboration and preparatory work for upcoming projects. An interesting project that he mentioned about was developing an eco-tourism project with the Irula tribe in Villupuram district. He says that the Irula tribe have a population of around 70,000 to 80,000 in the district. Since their primary source of livelihood is daily wage therefore their lives have been greatly impacted due to COVID-19.  He says that it will be extremely important to provide alternative sustainable livelihood solutions for such communities to recover in the aftermath of COVID-19. Thus, there remains a huge scope for developing eco-tourism activities as a mean to diversify the livelihood base of such communities and engaging the tourists in a meaningful experience of tourism.

-The interview was taken by Ms. Susmita Chatterjee, Project Manager of Sustainable Tourism Project in May'20