Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTION TOWARD CONSERVATION: A CASE STUDY OF SUNDERBANS TIGER RESERVE, INDIA

Ananya Ghosh, Parikshit Sharma and Pawan Gupta

Abstract

Local Communities are key stakeholders in tourism activities in the protected area. They have the immense knowledge of the surrounding and are well enrooted with the work associated with the land. Over the years, their prominence was identified by the institutional stakeholders for the welfare and prolonged existence of the protected site. Events and seminars are conducted in order to channel knowledge, address their concerns and most importantly, establish a healthy relation. The study aims to evaluate the perception of residents’ of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve towards conservation as well as identify if demographic profile of the local community effect their perception. Data were collected from 213 residents’ in October – November 2020 with the help of a structed questionnaire collected by convenient sampling method. Descriptive statistics are applied to evaluate the residents’ perception and Factor Analysis along with Multivariate Analysis of Variance is applied to identify relationships with demographic characteristics. The study finds a positive residents’ perception towards conservation in the study site and statistically significant relation was found between the demographic profile of the local community and their perception.