GREEN HOTELS AND RESORTS IN INDIA AND SRI LANKA
by Mallika Naguran

India and Sri Lanka may not be leaders in sustainable tourism in Asia but there are many positive developments in ecotourism here that include nature-based tourism, agro-tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, and even rural tourism. Several hospitality properties are exemplary models of responsible tourism; a few are “rambo-like” in their approach, kicking down barriers, rescuing humans, animals and plants that are at risk of being marginalised, or extinguished.

One such property is Sri Lanka’s Heritance Kandalama, about 160 kilometres from Colombo, near the ancient town of Dambulla. Sitting on the verge of the tranquil Kandalama Lake, overlooking the 5th century Sigiriya rock fortress, the 152-room property is a Geoffrey Bawa masterpiece built in 1994. The late Geoffrey Bawa was Sri Lanka’s greatest architect famed for blending buildings with their natural environments and interconnecting spaces, outside within inside. When the hotel was first completed he told the staff that one day the seven-storey high property would peer out from a canopy of trees. It is now possible to fully comprehend what he meant.

The hotel spreads out like a bird in flight across an astounding 1,800 metres, astride two protruding rocks. It is made mostly of discarded timber and cellular cement blocks as well as scrap iron and steel. The hotel’s raised platform, sitting on columns, looks like a natural appendage to the rich foliage and rocky terrain, allowing rainwater and wildlife to pass below the property freely.

Heritance Kandalama has attained the Green Globe Silver Certification and its staff practise a rigorous environmental management policy with (not three but) seven Rs: Reject, Reduce Reuse, Reclaim, Repair, Replace and Recycle. According to the general manager, Jeevaka Weerakone, the property has demonstrated positive returns from adhering to high standards in environmental sustainability. “No additional costs are necessary to uphold the 7R principles. As waste is turned into a resource, it is self financing.”

An example of this: even elephant dung is not left to rot; it is treated and recycled into handmade writing paper for local use and export by a cottage industry whose production facility is housed at the hotel premises. “Elephant dung paper manufacturing helps the conservation of this endangered and largest of land animals,” says Weerakone, adding that the USA is the paper’s top export market.

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Mallika Naguran has written for various publications including Discovery Channel magazine. Concerned with the alarming rate of tourism development with little regard for the environment, Mallika founded the not-for-profit and independent publication Gaia Discovery (www.gaiadiscovery.com) in 2008 to promote sustainable living and travel. A year on, Mallika has begun greening companies through Gaia Discovery Eco Solutions.

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