Bridging Lifestyles and Emissions: A Socio-Environmental Analysis of Resident Carbon Footprints from Energy and Tourism in Kodagu, Karnataka

Tourism, regardless of its good stimulus, is found to be unhealthy for the environment at times, leaving a significant carbon footprint behind. A study was conducted in the Kodagu district of Karnataka during the months of March and April 2022, identifying carbon footprint as a potent indicator for sustainable tourism to quantify the amount of CO2 emitted by local residents’ energy consumption and tourism-related transport activity. In our study, the electricity consumption has the highest share of carbon footprint, and road transport was found to be responsible for 74% of the total carbon footprint of tourism-related transportation. Although the carbon footprint of local residents of the study area is found to be quite lower than the nation’s per capita carbon footprint, the tourism-related transportation’s carbon footprint is found to be in an alarming situation. Hence, the world must adopt sustainable tourism and regularly monitor whether it is being practised or not to achieve sustainable development by using sustainable indicators to avert any catastrophic situation in future, especially in ecologically sensitive areas like the Western Ghats.