Adii Dande, 42, was on holiday in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 2019, when she met a fellow traveller, a woman from the UK. “She carried her own foldable frying pan, and made all her meals in it,” Dande recalls. “It fascinated me. That was the first time I thought about how I was travelling and wondered whether I was harming the environment, even if it was unintentional.”
The Pune-based freelance writer and art business owner has visited 28 countries since 2016, and spends months planning one long vacation a year. She is currently on a solo trip to Jordan and Morocco and is staying in a hostel in Cairo while she visits the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. “I now book just one return-flight ticket, irrespective of the number of countries and cities I plan to visit. I book buses, trains or ferries between destinations. Within India, I avoid air travel as much as I can.”
She also stays at backpacker hostels and makes the most of the ones that have attached kitchen gardens and provide basic ingredients and pots and pans for guests. “Unless there’s a local delicacy that I really must try, I prefer cooking for myself with ingredients from local markets and small cooperatives,” Dande says. “Many hostels and hotels clean the room only when guests ask. I think it’s great! If I’m staying just for a couple of nights, I don’t ask.”
Dande’s travel plans are far removed from the group tours of the 1990s, the itinerary-packed packages of the 2000s and the selfie-driven trips of the previous decade. Booking.com and McKinsey’s 2023 report, How India Travels, states that sustainable travel is a growing concern for Indian tourists. It’s not the primary guiding factor in travel choices yet (cost usually is), but some Indians are starting think of the environmental impact of middle-class wanderlust.
First steps
{{/usCountry}}Dande’s travel plans are far removed from the group tours of the 1990s, the itinerary-packed packages of the 2000s and the selfie-driven trips of the previous decade. Booking.com and McKinsey’s 2023 report, How India Travels, states that sustainable travel is a growing concern for Indian tourists. It’s not the primary guiding factor in travel choices yet (cost usually is), but some Indians are starting think of the environmental impact of middle-class wanderlust.
First steps
{{/usCountry}}Mandip Singh Soin has a head start on them. The mountaineer, environmentalist and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, has spent over 40 years in adventure travel. He’s also the founding president of the Responsible Tourism Society of India (RTSOI). It doesn’t all have to be frugal living, bare bones travelling, uncomfortable bus rides or cooking your own meals. But planning helps.
“On a trekking holiday, follow the principle of ‘pack in pack out’,” he says. This means to carry what you know you’ll need instead of buying disposable water bottles or adding shampoo sachets into the local landfill. “Camp 100 feet away from fresh water and avoid washing dishes directly in a stream or lake to avoid polluting it.”
He also recommends choosing hotels or organisations that are certified as following environmental practices, and supporting local businesses and restaurants instead of large corporations geared for scale. Soin’s company, Ibex Expeditions, carries back all the non-biodegradable garbage generated on their trips. Campfires are forbidden (why add to the smoke?), expeditions support local communities and source from non-profits. Their efforts have benefited several hill communities with education, healthcare, environment, plantation of trees, and support during natural disasters.
Baggage claim
Jose Dominic is a co-founding member of the RTSOI and managing director of CGH Earth hotels, which have focused on sustainable hospitality from the time they opened the Bangaram Island Resort in Lakshadweep in the 1980s. Back in 1988, the 14-cottage resort employed locals and served only local cuisine, had no ACs, TV or newspapers, didn’t allow fishing in the lagoon, the water sports only used wind and muscle power, every bottle opened was brought back to the mainland for disposal, and if guests smoked, they were expected to bring the cigarette butts back in their pockets. There was no room service, hot water, swimming pool or multi-cuisine restaurant.
“A sustainable approach is the future of travel,” Dominic believes. “Now, the customer isn’t king, the environment and the local communities are. There is a saying, take nothing and leave nothing behind except for footprints. I strongly disagree with that. Take whatever knowledge you can and leave behind the benefit your travel can do to the local communities.”
By the time CGH Earth gave up the lease for Bangaram in 2010, they had already opened other resorts that carried forward the same tenets of responsible tourism, in Kerala, Pondicherry, and Tamil Nadu. Holidays at Dominic’s resorts don’t come cheap – packages cost about ₹50,000. About 80% of participants in Booking.com’s 2023 Sustainable Travel Report believe sustainable travel options to be more expensive. But hotel owners across India, big and small, are making finding new ways to do right by Earth and patrons’ budgets.
Prashant Agrawal, 34, and Kanupriya Raniwala, 36, run Trä, a five-room boutique homestay in Manali. They make their own ghee, dahi and paneer; provide refillable toiletries; grow tomatoes, cabbages and herbs in their kitchen garden; and use locally made oils for cooking. Waste is segregated, all transactions are paperless, and guests are urged to be mindful of their consumption of water and electricity. “A lot of locals in our village still follow sustainable ways of making food. So, we started sourcing pickles and milk from them, eliminating packaging and processing. We hired local women as staff too; it ties us more strongly to the community,” says Agrawal. It still keeps room costs to under ₹3,000 a night.
Wander vision
In Ranthambore, Jaisal Singh’s luxury campstay Sujan Sher Bagh has all the trappings of a high-end vacation: 12 tented suites, brass bathtubs, private walled gardens, a spa, restaurant and complimentary laundry. Guests pay upwards of ₹95,000 per night for the experience. The hotel has won several awards for its environmentally friendly practices and Singh has authored books on wildlife, serves on Rajasthan’s State Wildlife Board, the Standing Committee for Wildlife and the state’s Tiger Expert Committee.
To travel more responsibly, “check before you check-in,” he says. Choose hotels that have green certifications, ask about the company’s commitment to the planet and local communities. “You want to go somewhere that is truly transparent in the work it does towards supporting biodiversity and preserving local culture.”
Younger travellers, those between 25-35, care for about the experience than about fancy lodgings or upgrades, says Shannon Fernandes, co-founder of Mumbai-based Vagabond Experiences, which runs backpacking trips and treks around the country. “Our travellers are more than okay with carrying their own water bottles and towels, living in homestays with minimal facilities, travelling by public transport and practising slow tourism,” he says. “But from what I’ve noticed, sustainable travel practices matter far more to the organisers. I’ve rarely experienced clients inquiring about them.” It will be a while before Dande and her kind start to become the norm.
Keep it clean
RTSOI’s guidelines for responsible tourism will soon be part of a government-led national campaign. Here are some of their recommendations:
Eat and shop local. Promote and purchase handicrafts, souvenirs directly from the local community, or non-profits. This boosts the local economy and encourages locals to retain their culture. Do not buy products made from protected and endangered plants or animals (Seashells, ivory, shatoosh shawls). Carry a reusable bag for purchases.
Support a local community. Non-profits working towards education, health and conservation at tourism destinations can help direct tourism revenue towards building better lives for people. Choose where you spend.
Go slow. If travel time and physical issues are not a major concern, offset carbon on your journey. Shared vehicles lower environmental impacts. Use the United Nations carbon-footprint calculator (offset.climateneutralnow.org/footprintcalc) to work out which aspects of a vacation cause the most damage and can be minimised or avoided.
Tour green. Choose tours and attractions that do not cause suffering or abuse to animals. Wildlife SOS recommends no elephant rides, lion petting, tiger selfies, snake charmers, dancing monkeys, and bears. Don’t support bondage animal tourism or patronise attractions that capture wild animals.
Crowd control. Excess tourism (too many hotels, roads, touts and commercial activities) hurts a destination and does not add much to the local economy. Choose less-frequently-visited destinations instead.