Impact of religious tourism on Gir National Park
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 attracgts 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.