The Impact of Tourism on Water Quality of Damdama Lake in Haryana, India

A variety of environmental goods and services provided by lakes make them vulnerable to human demand. Society’s demand for economic gains has contributed to the deterioration of water quality and aesthetic value of lakes. Damdama Lake is facing multifold pressure due to domestic and agricultural discharge, intermixing of storm and sewage water and congestion of areas in and around the lake. Different ghats of the lake exhibited variations in physicochemical parameters through a period of two decades. Most of the parameters were found to be slightly higher than the IS permissible limit (IS-10500:1991).This paper addresses two prime concerns – the water quality status of the lake and identifying the indicators of sustainable development to facilitate operationalizing and evaluating the concept at Damdama. It is concluded that in its present form, tourism in the study area does not meet the criteria for true sustainable development. With little or no interest and intervention from the government, tourists often tend to mishandle the resources. The ecological degradation is clearly visible in the quality of lake water which has deteriorated with time. More involvement of the community in tourism planning, could unlock significant potential for developing ecotourism that brings sustainable economic benefits to the community and promotes environmental protection.