Cosmos: A Journal of Geography

Open Knowledge Sharing in Ecotourism: Integrating Indian Ecological Ethics for Sustainable Environmental Education

Climate anxiety and biodiversity loss are accelerating, yet conservation policy keeps looking to technology and international frameworks for answers. This paper argues that India's village commons may offer more. Through document analysis of Sanskrit texts, policy records, and ecotourism cases, it examines four philosophical traditions Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Prakriti-Dharma, Ahimsa, and Pancha-mahabhuta alongside practices like Sacred Groves, Bishnoi traditions, and the Chipko movement. Together, these form a coherent, community-rooted framework for sustainable ecotourism. The paper traces how colonial and post-colonial Westernisation replaced these reciprocity-based systems with extractive, expert-driven models. Five contemporary cases Sikkim, Kerala, Meghalaya, Ladakh, and Rajasthan show what revival looks like in practice, with documented ecological and community outcomes. The analysis produces the Indian Ecological Ethics and Knowledge Sharing (IEEKS) Framework: a five-dimensional policy model that is culturally grounded in India and adaptable elsewhere.