Impact of Religious Tourism on Gir National Park, Gujarat, India

Many protected area managers are encountering difficulties balancing the demands of conservation and visitors. An essential component of sound management planning for these areas is objective data on visitor use impacts and needs. Gir National Park attracts a large number of visitors, both pilgrims and tourists. What matters is not the large number of visitors but the type of visitors, the pattern of resource use and the quality of management to achieve compatibility between activities undertaken by the visitors and the protected area objectives. Most research in the protected areas in the country has dealt with biological issues and little attention has been given to researching visitor management issues.The preliminary study aimed to collect information on the present status of pilgrimage and its management in Gir National Park and also to identify and quantify the impacts on the habitat, flora and fauna.