One of the many practices of the mainstream society that threaten the lives of indigenous people is ecotourism, a seemingly innocuous buzzword of the global tourism industry. Ecotourism is essentially nature based tourism that can be defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of the local people." Although the aim of ecotourism is to benefit the local people and the environment, the assumption that this kind of tourism is synonymous with ethical travel is a dangerous one. A lot of greenwashing is done in the name of ecotourism which ends up harming the environment in the same manner as conventional mass tourism. This pseudo ecotourism is the reason why indigenous people worldwide have experienced eviction from traditional lands and the destruction of their habitat. Homes have been demolished, communities displaced and people injured, all in the name of ecotourism. In fact, The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples acknowledged in 2003 that ecotourism had severely damaged lands belonging to indigenous lands. Even so, the tremendous potential of authentic ecotourism to contribute to the welfare of the indigenous people, economically as well socially, cannot be overlooked altogether. This paper, by employing a purely doctrinal methodology, aims to study the impact of ecotourism on indigenous people, positive as well as negative, how their rights are violated on the pretext of pseudo ecotourism and what kind of legal recourse do they have in case of such violations, with special emphasis on the Indian scenario where such people are better known as scheduled tribes. Using case studies from across the globe, the paper shall offer some examples of best practices that can be adopted to increase the ‘voluntary’ and meaningful involvement of the indigenous communities in ecotourism, righteously acknowledging them as important stakeholders in this industry.
