Assessing the impact of religious tourism on environment a case of Mathura

Abstract

Tourism is the movement of people from one place to other with a motive. These motives can be of many different types depending upon a person’s interest and will. 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. Mathura is one such city in the Braj dham which is the main urban center and receives millions of tourist per year. These tourist visit all the major dham’s or temples of Mathura that form the Mathura Parikrama in the heart of the city. These Pilgrims come from surrounding cities like Agra, Delhi, Jaipur and Lucknow and reside for two to three days on an average. These tourist mainly of rural population, the middle class population, Foreigners and other Sadhus. This Thesis aims to assess the impact of this Religious Tourism and the activities they undertake on the Natural Environment of the city, that includes, Air, Water; the holy Yamuna River, along with the mapping of Noise and Solid waste Production around the Parikrama Path of the City. 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 measuring the Tourism carrying capacity of this holy city in qualitative terms through DPSIR and LAC models to give an overall scenario. It is concluded by providing suggestions for improving the situation of the Environment through various Sustainable tourism concepts that are applicable in Mathura.