“So how’s your project on Responsible Tourism progressing?” I tried to provoke the environmental activist in Tirou. Tirou being a civil engineer, was always captivated by green ideology. Passionate engineer then successfully accomplished his dream and is now Sweden’s leading consultant in Environmental Science, associated with study of environment and scientific solutions for environmental concerns.

“Hey Pikachu, don’t make fun of my project. Responsible Tourism is aimed at irresponsible people like me and you“, he poked fun at me. Excessive growth of footfall adds burden to a tourist destination and results in various environmental consequences. A remarkable example is of the Great Barrier Reef, world’s largest coral reef system stretching over 3,44,400 square kilometers off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Being one of the world’s seven natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef attracts tourists around the globe with the dive to clear waters and breathtaking marine life.

Marine pollution, over fishing and global warming adversely affected the coral system. Coral bleaching caused by the heating up of ocean due to global warming had made the corals bleach and die. Hence the destination remained closed until around 2030 for it to replenish.

Through effective measures of responsible tourism and by being a responsible tourist who could have safeguarded it’s natural environment and ecology, we exploited it as it was reeling about $6 billion annually. Fortunately the goal to halt and reverse the decline of species and health of reef ecosystem was attained by dedicated efforts and the same was visited by me and my pal Vishanth, last year.

Behind Tirou, I noticed Misty playing with something. Misty is one of Tirou’s pet dog and Missy’s youngest child. “Is that a drone what Misty is playing with?” I asked.
“Yeah, a latest underwater drone specially designed to carry out multiple tasks such as to explore marine life, monitor environmental conditions, repair the submarine communication cables which connects the continents or even to execute major rescue missions“, Tirou explained.

I unveiled my disappointment, “Ohh.. I had higher expectations on future UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). But I must say, USV’s (Unmanned Surface Vehicles) or the so called underwater drones with it’s control system and navigation technologies has now surpassed my expectations“.

Tirou who was waiting for a chance to throw his punch dialogue at me, ” How can it not surpass! It’s people like me who are working on it. You know what ‘T’ in ‘Tirou’ stands for? Tremendous!”
“I thought it’s ‘terrible’!”, my punchline splashed a mischievous smile on Tirou’s face.

Reference: https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/oceans/great-barrier-reef#gs.37owgq Image courtesy: https://pixabay.com/images/search/great%20barrier%20reef/