Towards the Development of Sustainable Tourism in Sikkim, India: Issues and Challenges.

This article analyses tourism in Sikkim, a very small hilly state in the Eastern Himalaya, in light of the most sustainable kind of tourism process and its issues and challenges. It studied to map the state of progress, prospects, and patterns of tourism in the state. Tourism in Sikkim is predominant by domestic and foreign tourists that shot up by nearly 77 percent to 14.25 lakh during 2017, total tourist influx in the northeastern state. A huge number of tourist influxes would also have pressure on the infrastructure, environment, and culture of the state. Sustainable planning involving optimal use of management is required for a viable symbiosis of tourism and environment, and sustainability of tourism in the state. As Sikkim is also under threat from climate change, land degradation, overexploitation, and natural disasters, and devastating consequences, In fact, one out of three mountain people in developing countries is vulnerable to food insecurity and faces poverty and isolation. Unplanned growth of tourism and limited infrastructure in Sikkim is to identify new and sustainable opportunities to arrest further environmental degradation and initiate a new approach to planning in the region.