Prospective of ecotourism in Poonch District

Tourism is the largest and a very fast growing industry. However we must not take too lightly the visitor effect on environmental resources which subsequently triggers a plethora of problems leading to the global warming, which is indeed a great threat to the life on this planet. But ecotourism is both economically and environmentally viable activity, which aims at conserving environment on the one hand and providing economic opportunities to the local people on the other. Poonch often called as “mini Kashmir” is a district in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The study is an attempt at analyzing the potential of district Poonch for ecotourism, which eventually would improve the socio economic conditions of the local people by providing them with livelihood opportunities. The study is based on both primary (field work and in-depth discussions with district authorities and local people, in and around tourist spots) and secondary sources of data. It has been found that Poonch district has an enormous potential for ecotourism. Poonch is quite rich in natural, religious, cultural and historical sources essential for ecotourism. Its natural scenery, lingual, cultural and religious multitude with unique historical heritage provides enormous prospects for Ecotourists. Various ecotourism activities and concepts like Rural Tourism, Transhumance activities, Lake Tourism, Trekking etc which are able to be significant to Poonch district have been pointed out. At the end certain suggestions have been made to give momentum to the ecotourism in Poonch.