Assessment of Environmental Impacts in case of a religious tourist place

Abstract

Mass congregation takes place for different purposes like sports events, religious rally, political rally, etc. This uncertain mass gathering like religious gathering creates impacts on environment. In a religious country like India, with such a vast history in terms of religion and religious places, one of the core motives of people to travel is to experience these religious forms, culture and attain peace. Trips like the Amarnath Yatra, Char dham Yatra, Braj dham yatra are well known to people and they take these trips once in their lifetime. Hence Religious tourism is the most explored type of tourism in India. The tourism activities, and especially the religious activities exert pressure on the natural systems of the place. The parameters being the loads of pollutants and toxic materials, and other socio economic changes, which are in such huge figures that are not sustainable to the city. The impacts may be on the resident people, the culture, and especially on the natural environment of the place. The presence of tourists along with their activities creates high pressure on the city’s resources that are needed to support them. Pandharpur is such a religious place in Maharashtra which is the main urban center of Pandharpur taluka and receives millions of tourist per year. These pilgrims travel from all over the Maharashtra and other nearby states from south India. These tourists mainly are from rural population, the middle class population, Foreigners. Majority of the population visit is from age 40 to 80 years old. This thesis aims to assess the impact on this Religious Tourism and the activities they undertake on the Natural Environment of the city, that includes, Air, land, the holy river Bhima, other waterbodies, along with the mapping religious activities. Primary survey at the temples and ghats, along with secondary data from tourist offices, Municipal Corporation and State Pollution Control Board has been collected for the Analysis. The thesis focuses on assessing environmental impacts with DPSIR framework by European Environmental agency.