Hard selling a hotspot
Can ecotourism bloom in a nuclear disaster zone? A UN report believes so. The recently released document suggests that the area around Chernobyl - the site of the world's worst nuclear accident nearly 16 years ago - be promoted as a destination for nature-loving rubbernecks.
The proposal may not be easy to implement because radiation levels remain alarmingly high in most of the expansive stretches of land exposed to the lethal cloud released in the April 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. Besides, all visitors - except scientists and a few elderly people who have insisted upon returning to their homes - are now barred from going within 30 kilometres of the disaster site in Ukraine.
Surprisingly, the region is anything but a nuclear desert. In fact, the near-absence of human activity has enabled local plant and animal life to flourish in some areas. "It sounds odd, but the restricted sites have actually developed over the last 16 years or so into an extraordinary environmental opportunity," says Kalman Mizsei, an official of the UN Development Program (UNDP). "The natural environment has returned there," he reveals.
The recommendation appears to have been made in the wake of the world body's latest study of the human consequences of the tragedy. It has been found that the international community is gradually losing interest in providing financial aid to the area. The report points out that even as radioactivity levels are gradually declining, some 100,000-200,000 people living in the vicinity "are facing a complex and progressive downward spiral of living conditions".
It, however, remains to be seen whether the green makeover can help Chernobyl shed its 'crisis zone' tag.