Biodiversity and Eco-Tourism in Ranthambore National Park Sawai Madhopur

Ecotourism is a sustainable path to tourism development and is being promoted as a means of giving nature a value and hence achieving sustainable tourism. The objective of ecotourism is to promote sustainable tourism, which involves overall development of the local community and to provide a better understanding and appreciation of natural and cultural features of the host population leading to international, inter-regional and inter-cultural understanding for sustainable development. The involvement of the local communities and other stakeholders is an important component to achieve the goals of ecotourism. The definition of ecotourism has changed significantly with the passage of time. Earlier ecotourism was defined as a descriptive concept in which there was no difference between ecotourism and nature tourism. But now, ecotourism seems to be explained as the desired state of a development to reach a balance between nature conservation, sustainable socio-economic development and nature tourism. Ecotourism in simple words means management of tourism and conservation of nature in a way so as to maintain a fine balance between the requirements of tourism and ecology on one hand and needs of the local communities on the other. Tourism and ecotourism must be placed within a country’s overall development strategy, as well as within the context of a global economy.