Akanksha Garg started her entrepreneurial journey in the travel industry at the age of 18. From the beginning she championed sustainable tourism as one of her guiding business principles. Today she's the CEO of hospitality brand Waxpol Hotels and Resorts, which boasts four retreats for visitors: the Sunderban Tiger Camp in Dayapur Island, the Riverwood Forest Retreat in Dooars, West Bengal, and two Riverwood Forest Retreats in Madhya Pradesh.
Garg has been officially acknowledged as one of India's top women hoteliers and has been recognised for her efforts, such as winning TravTalk's 2021 World Travel Leader award. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why is responsible tourism important to you and how do you implement it in your organisation?
Responsible (and) sustainable tourism is ingrained in my blood, being born in a family of wildlife enthusiasts. We constantly travelled to remote forests where rest houses had inadequate facilities. This prompted us to carry all [the] basic requirements [and bring] support staff to help cook [and] clean as the locals were not skilled. We also carried our garbage back as there was no disposal system in place.
Back then the concept of responsible tourism was not understood, hence we decided to implement it at Sunderban Tiger Camp. We employed and trained the local people – who were primarily fishermen, honey collectors [and] wood collectors – for hospitality. We coordinated with the forest department to develop safe routes for tourism activities and sought help from the government in developing the infrastructure to reach the Sundarbans. We saw a drastic change in the quality of life of the locals.
Today we have rainwater harvesting, zero waste water, plantation of endemic and regional fruit-bearing trees to encourage birds and wildlife, [and] solar-powered lights and water heaters to reduce our carbon emissions.
What can travellers expect when they visit a property of yours?
Our tours are customised for guests [to] ensure they get maximum exposure to the region. Tours in the buffer zone are designed to reduce environmental and social impact as guests get to visit different homes to interact with the locals to understand their culture and way of life. The guides and escorts who lead these experiences are villagers themselves, hence building meaningful connections with the tourists.
What are the challenges you have faced and how have you dealt with them?
One of the initial challenges we faced while setting up the resorts was getting water. [The] Sundarbans has no source of groundwater, hence we started rainwater harvesting where we would collect water for the whole year during the monsoons. Over the years we have implemented rainwater harvesting in two of our properties. We still face the challenge of handling garbage. We recycle 80% of the waste and the rest is segregated and sold to kabadiwalas. We would love it when all packaging is stopped and we have zero waste.
Any unexpected experiences?
When we built the resort in the Sundarbans, we bought pine wood from a fishing ship which was being dismantled in Kolkata and used it to construct our first ecofriendly wooden cottages. They were so ecofriendly that they got eaten up by a special variety of borers found in the region! That’s how we were introduced to the shipworm, which bores holes into the wooden hull of boats.
It was chaotic; there were a lot of books read, expert advice [given] from my dad and his constant involvement which saved the day. I remember being a nervous wreck [and] checking each and everything multiple times just to ensure nothing more went wrong.
What is the impact of your organisation?
At Waxpol Hotels and Resorts we understand the importance of maintaining water sustainability in the regions where our wildlife resorts are situated. We have implemented a combination of rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment and recycling processes at all our resorts.
We harvest and conserve rainwater which, after purification, is used for drinking, bathing, cooking and irrigation. This is especially beneficial for the Sunderban Tiger Camp as the region has no direct source of sweet water or underground water. Our rainwater harvesting process has resulted in fresh water being available 24 hours everyday.
We also implement [a] zero water discharge system, which is a water treatment process wherein wastewater is purified and recycled, leaving zero discharge at the end of the treatment. More importantly, it also minimises energy consumption, brings down indirect CO2 emissions and eliminates effluent pollution.
What are proven best practices that other responsible tourism practitioners can implement?
We would love to share some of our responsible tourism practices which are easy to implement by all stakeholders. They are:
1. Reuse, reduce and recycle garbage
We have implemented processes that reduce [the] generation of waste and divert waste away from disposal and towards recovery as a valuable commodity. At an organisational level, this includes incorporating waste-wise product design manufacturing processes and in business operations. At a resort level, this involves segregating waste at source into organic and inorganic waste. The organic waste is then transferred to the on-site vermiculture pits for composting. The rich compost is then used to improve the garden soil and boost the outdoor plants.
2. Rebuild, revive and recreate culture
We organise tours and visits to local villages near our resorts where guests can interact with the locals and purchase traditional and handmade artefacts. This provides the villagers [with] an additional source of income. At [the] Sunderban Tiger Camp we organise folk dances and Bonbibi yatra. This achieves the dual purpose of generating employment and allowing for cultural exchange amongst the locals and guests.
At the Riverwood Forest Retreat in Pench National Park we organise visits to the nearby potters' village where guests can watch or try their hand at making pots, and also purchase terracotta souvenirs. Guests can purchase bamboo art and artefacts made from buffalo horn during the local village tours organised by our resort.
3. Community development
Loyalty of the locals to become conservationists can only be achieved by promoting sustainable tourism and providing them with employment. This makes them self-reliant and less dependent on the forest for their livelihood, thus reducing man-animal conflicts and making the inhabitants responsible and responsive in the wildlife conservation efforts. 95% of employees that work at Waxpol Hotels and Resorts belong to the local populace.
