Tourism Beyond Carrying Capacity and Environmental Pressure in the Indian Himalaya: A GIS and Remote Sensing-Based Study of Kedarnath–Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrjss.2026.v06.n01.021Keywords:
Mountain Tourism, Religious Tourism, Tourism Carrying Capacity, GIS, Remote Sensing, LULC Change, NDVI, Landslide Susceptibility, Sustainable Tourism, Kedarnath, Rudraprayag, Indian HimalayaAbstract
The Indian Himalaya is among the most environmentally sensitive mountain systems in the world, where forests, water sources, river systems, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of local communities are closely interlinked. The Kedarnath–Rudraprayag region has become a major centre of religious and mountain tourism, driving local economic development, but the sharp rise in the number of pilgrims and tourists over the past two to two-and-a-half decades, together with the rapid expansion of tourism-related infrastructure such as roads, hotels, markets, and parking areas, has raised serious concerns regarding the ecological, physical, infrastructural, and social carrying capacity of the region. The present study aims to develop an integrated geospatial assessment of the Land Use/Land Cover changes, vegetation pressure, waste generation, water demand, and landslide and flood vulnerability arising from tourism growth and infrastructure expansion in the Kedarnath–Rudraprayag region. The study integrates multi-temporal satellite imagery, Digital Elevation Model-based terrain analysis, GIS-based spatial overlay, tourism and disaster records, and a household-level field survey. Tourism carrying capacity is adopted as the central analytical framework, linking physical, ecological, infrastructural, and resource-related pressures with tourism intensity. The core proposition of this study is that tourism in itself is not the problem; the problem arises when tourism exceeds the carrying capacity of the mountain. Based on the findings, the study proposes a carrying-capacity-based sustainable mountain tourism framework encompassing hazard-sensitive land-use zoning, regulated construction, sustainable transportation, water and waste management, and local community participation.
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