How to be a social Traveler?

I remember a parable recited during my child hood, “a man has two hands and one mouth, because he’s born not only to work and feed himself but others as well”. Today in every advertisement, concert, or any fund raising transaction you may find a tag revealing the percentage of funds going toward charity or environmental support. You hardly care about your part of contribution. Have you ever felt an urge to give your ideas on how to develop society, on behalf of your contribution? The answer is you cannot reach the end user of your contribution. In this post I’ll reveal how you can support both environment and society giving your own views to the end user, who now will meet you. You don’t need to organize anything or join a social organisation for this, but simply you can do it yourself, all alone.

Today, it has already been observed that reliance on all the set up organisations or regulatory approach, hardly brings any difference to the graph of nature exploitation. You can just think in a way that is it possible for you to save the forests and wildlife which are 1000 miles far from your place. The only effective way is to involve the people who live near these resources, as it’s their home and they are the ones who see the change with their bare eyes and they can stop it. The only problem is these communities are so unnoticed that they have to earn their livelihood depending on these valuable resources. They have no other alternatives to save these natural resources. Looking at this now several alternative livelihood programs have been projected targeting these areas, so that their reliance on these resources decreases and to grow a feeling of consciousness in them regarding the huge loss they’re suffering which’ll in the long run impact everyone of us.

How many times in a year do you spend money on tour and adventure program ? well that is the number of social work and environment support you’ll be doing. These are the steps you need to look after if you are really conscious about the environmental change and social welfare for the people who can make the difference.

1. Choose a resort nearest to the the village and forest, or you can opt for home stays. This way you are helping them to generate income out of their own house. They will certainly know the reason for your interest in their place, and will try to save it so that their income remains sustainable. You will not only be donating for the ecology but also for the social welfare. Please remember that in case there are no such accommodation facility, you can always prefer for the resorts owned by the local people or serviced by them. Let the revenue of tourism be earned in higher by the locals than the other other luxurious hotels. Even if its a hotel built by others please look into the fact that how much is that particular hotel providing income opportunity to the forest villagers.

2. Always try to use the local transportation of that particular place. If possible give a phone call to the resort caretaker and ask him to arrange a local transportation for pick and drop giving him the scheduled dates. This way again you’ll bring an income opportunity for the village itself, which will help them understand their income source and will certainly take steps to save it.

3. Prefer ordering regional dishes or if possible arrange a dinner or lunch at a local’s house with your family. Share your dishes with them like a guest. This is again an alternative source of income for them. It also promotes organic cultivation, as they would be cultivating more foods to meet the demand of visitors for local food. While returning you can always buy local fruits and vegetables right from the garden or farm, they won,t have to search for market and it will be a sustainable income for them, they wont have to rely on natural resources.

4. Take a local guide, and ask him to escort you for the local visiting spots which they like, believe it or not its their place and imagine how beautiful  that place would be which they like. Local educated youth will be inspired by this and will have an enthusiasm to learn about the flora and fauna of their place to describe tourists in a better way. This is the time when you can reveal your opinions for a change in their way to support environment, assist them to go for nature study training, help them with books and guides, stop pollution efforts etc.

5. Show your passion in adventurous activities, like rock climbing, trekking etc, and ask a local to organize night events with cultural programs and ask your fellow visitors to join the program. This way yo’re promoting their culture and tradition. The adventurous activities will show them that this also may be an alternative source of income for them.

6. Take a local aged man and ask him about the medicinal plants found in jungle, just take a note and describe them the importance of their forest in the environment and save them. If possible arrange a short period of class in the local schools where you can teach the local kids to save their place from plastic and other harmful pollutants.