Archaeological Heritage Tourism and Environmental Degradation: A Study at Nanda Dighi Vihara at Jagajjivanpur of Malda District, West Bengal

Now a day’s environmental degradation is one of the most alarming topics worldwide. There are so many causes due to which environment is being degraded. Environment (both physical and cultural aspects) is an integral component of tourism because the environment act as hindrance as well as creating opportunities for tourism development of a region or a country. At the same time unplanned and haphazard development of tourism industry may create environmental degradation. Around 40 kilometers away from Malda town, Nanda Dirge Vihara is situated at Jagjivanpur under Habibpur P.S. A copper plate (about 12 kg and measures more or less 52.2 cm by 37.1 cm) was discovered on 13th March, 1987 by a local resident (Jagdish Gayen) from a mound named Tulabhita. This copper plate first describes that the Pala ruler Mahendrapala (4th Pala king,) was the son and successor of Devpala of Pala Dynasty (9th - 10th century B.C.).After this incident Jagajjivanpur is a famous archaeological heritage tourism destination among tourists (domestic as well as international). A large number of tourists, mainly domestic tourists used to come here in the month of December and January every year. Many of them organized a picnic and left all the wasted materials here and there, which creates environmental pollution for the locale. This paper is an attempt to analyze environmental degradation due to unplanned development of archaeological heritage tourism here.