On the Spot Assesment by Morten an LTV Volunteer of FSL India

Eco Tourism Activities : Trasi is a small village on the sea shore in the north of Kundapura. It is situated between the sea on one side and a river on the other. There is every possibility to make boat tours to go to the beach or to make a village walk. People also can visit a temple or a small island on the river. Tourists can have meals, tea and snacks or refreshments in Host Families.

Contact Persons: Mr. Abraham Chako is the owner of the Turtle Bay Beach Resort and president of the Trasi Sanitation Commitee. HBP team of FSL India collaborate with him in facilitating eco friendly activities to tourists who would stay in his resort.

Mr. Richard Almeida is a local man and also member of the Trasi Sanitation Commitee. In case of organising some events or eco tourism actions in Trasi or if one needs any information for some field work, he is the person to be contacted.

Mr. Richard‘s family is one of the Host Families in Trasi. The family can offer meals, snacks, tea and refreshments like juice. Family of Phillip is also another Host Family. His Family too can offer meals, refreshments, snacks and tea. The daughter of Mr. Phillip speaks English very well and may be a potential guide in the future. This family also can offer boattours. Boatman can offer boat tours with stick boats and motor boats.

Problems: One of the problems is that the boat tour is not to so spectacular. It is calm and relaxing but not too exciting when it lasts for more than half an hour. A stick boat available without roof can make the tourists sit under the sun without any protection. That is very hard for the tourists especially when they are not used to the Indian weather. A motor boat with roof is aslo available. However, this seems to be quite expensive as it is run with fuel. A motor boat is not so good for environmental tourism.

Improvements: FSL India need to find more interesting spots on boat trips and make a better prize for the motor boat trips. Another improvement needed is sun protection by using sun umbrellas for the stick boats. And of course Home Based Proejct of FSL India needs to establish eco tourism over there for a long period so that the people over there would rely on this initiaitve.