Niti Ayog favours green cess

The governments top think tank, Niti Ayog has favoured imposing a "green cess" from tourists to arrest the environmental degradation caused by the rising footfalls in the Indian Himalayan region.

The Niti Ayog proposal in its recent report of working Group 2 sustainable Tourism in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) follows observation that the region annually records about 100 million tourists and the number is expected to increase to 240 million by 2025,putting huge pressure on resources.The 'green cess' will help boost revenue services as well as ensure sustainable development of the region that stretches about 2,400 km across the northern border of India, covering area of about 500000 sq. km, as per the report.

 It also suggested payments for environmental services (PES) such as charging entrance fees from tourists and services sector as a long term solution within the tourism industry. The panel has also called for carrying out tourism development management of Destination carrying capacity as the destinations have their own limited natural and heritage resources and infrastructure.Arunachal Pradesh ,Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,

Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal are the part of the IHR.

                                                                                 ( Monday,15 Oct)