Eco-friendly travel initiatives reshape tourism across Visakhapatnam and Eastern Ghats

UPDATE - follow-up to Sustainable tourism in Visakhapatnam: Travel beyond the checklist: Ahead of World Tourism Day, nature-based travel initiatives in Visakhapatnam and the Eastern Ghats are changing how visitors experience landscapes through smaller groups and local involvement. Pravaham, an eco-stay near Araku founded by V Samved, uses locally sourced soil, hay, timber, and bamboo for nearly 90% of its construction, with mud, cob, and lime plaster to regulate indoor temperatures. The property relies on nearby villages for food, workforce, and experiences, while offering a Black Box digital detox program and encouraging activities like the Plant a Memory initiative, waste management, and carpooling. Meanwhile, trek leader Ravi Teja and the group EcoHikes have reduced their group sizes from 30 people to about 12, having conducted over 600 treks and guided more than 8,000 participants across nine years. EcoHikes uses gas stoves instead of firewood, serves food on banana or Bauhinia leaves, and has even closed certain trails to prevent overcrowding from viral social media reels. Along the coast, the East Coast Conservation Team, led by Deepu Visweswar and Priyanka Vedula, conducts tidepool walks limited to eight participants per instructor, instructing visitors to photograph marine life rather than touch animals and upload observations to iNaturalist. Additionally, Subhash Chandran's Platypus Escapes combines recreational scuba diving along the Visakhapatnam coast with conservation dives and underwater clean-ups to address marine pollution.