Ganges Expedition Calls for Action to Save River from Pollution Journey Along the Inner Shores of India Reveals Tourism Opportunities
Kolkata, 19 October 2009 – A partnership of ecologists, adventurers and travel specialists announced today the successful completion of an unprecedented expedition down the Ganges River. For the first time ever, an international team has travelled the Ganges 2,521 kilometres from Haridwar, a city situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, to Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal, in rigid inflatable boats, after having hiked to the river’s source at the Gangotri glacier located at an altitude of 4,000 metres. Supported by boat manufacturer AB Inflatables, environmental organization Green Cross International and Kuoni, a leading leisure travel and destination management company, the Ganges Expedition has documented the state of India’s holy river, visited pilot projects of the World Wide Fund for Nature WWF to clean it up, and discovered its up to now unused potential for sustainable tourism.
“Travelling on the Ganges, along the inner shores of India, has been a unique way to experience the country, its people and their cultures. The river could become a major destination for sustainable tourism if all existing action plans are finally put into action and the river is cleaned up,” said Helge Bendl, spokesperson of the project. “The river is still being polluted day by day by waste from agriculture and industry, but the knowledge to save the river and its unique biodiversity with animals like the Ganges River Dolphin is there and it has been proven to be very successful.”
After having travelled other great rivers of the world like the Mekong and the Zambezi, the team around Swiss expedition leader Andy Leemann has seen both the challenging as well as the beautiful side of the Ganges. “Every day has been full of surprises and full of close encounters with the river and the people living along its banks,” the explorer said. “Strangers became friends and this is what has made travelling on the Ganges so special for us.”
“This expedition has highlighted what travel is and will be about in the future: deep experiences and unique as well as responsible encounters with people and nature. The Ganges Expedition also highlights for Kuoni the importance of responsible tourism as well the significance of collaborations with specialists and partner organizations such as Green Cross International. We are convinced that by supporting such and similar projects with our long‐term partners we can minimize the negative impacts of our business and enhance the positive ones in order to work towards a more responsible tourism”, said Matthias Leisinger, Head of Corporate Responsibility for the Kuoni Group. As an innovative company and industry leader, Kuoni has taken the opportunity of the arrival of the crew to learn from experiences under more extreme conditions: “Within our innovation management it is common that we search the dialogue with different people from various backgrounds and cultural fields – such as artists, ethnologists, designers or like today, expedition participants. This is the only way to think out of the box and be ready to anticipate the expectations of today’s discerning travellers and trendsetters of our times”, added Remo Masala, Director Branding and Marketing for the Kuoni Group.
BACKGROUND
The Ganges Expedition is a project of Rib Expedition & Adventure in partnership with AB Inflatables, Green Cross International and Kuoni. It has visited projects of the World Wide Fund for Nature WWF and has received assistance from CPN Satellite Services, Pennel, Tag Heuer and Yacht Center Palma. The Swiss non-profit foundation myclimate has offsetted all carbon emissions caused by travel during, before and after the Ganges Expedition. The funds from these offsets are channelled into financing an innovative undertaking by Kuoni and myclimate, a waste recycling project on Bali, Indonesia.
The following crew members arrived in Kolkata on 19 October 2009: Andy Leemann, Helge Bendl, Apal Singh, Nishant Purohit, Zorba Laloo, Jaja Vondurskova , Gabriela Tones, Vivek Singh, Mirza Afzal Beg and Leo Fahey.