Environmental Impact of tourism on Vembanad Lake Joseph Chandy 1 , Raghunathan Rajesh 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology,Kerala , India. 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology,Kerala, India. Abstract - Vembanadu wetland is the largest wetland system in India which is the official site of the Ramsar convention on Wetlands. Human Intervention on the lake is severe which affects the function, structure and entire composition of the Vembanadu wetland system. There is a drastic growth in tourism sector in and around Vembanadu Lake for the past two decades. This project focuses on the impact of tourism on Vembanadu lake system and also to the environment. As a result of the tremendous growth of Backwater tourism in and around the Vembanadu Lake, the waste composition has increased to a large extent. The sources which has impact on the lake are houseboats, resorts and hotels near the lakes, and littering from the domestic and foreign tourist .The waste which are generated from tourism are the sewage from house boats, hotels and resorts, oil from engines, plastic wastes and food wastes. Thus causes increase in waterborne diseases, skin diseases, cholera and cancer, damage of fish variety of the lake, and also it effect the flora and fauna of the Vembanadu Lake. There is a lack of proper waste management system. Study is conducted on the Vembanadu Lake. Even though the Lake flows through three districts of Kerala the study area is limited to Kottayam district. This study is intended to identify the quantity of major waste generated from tourism and to propose an effective management of these predominant wastes. Keywords- : back water tourism, waste disposal, waste management 1. INTRODUCTION Vembanadu Lake spreads in Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulum districts of Kerala which forms Vembanad Lake wetland system of an area of 2033.02km². In the past twenty years the growth of tourism sector in and around the Vembanad Lake is spectacular. Backwater tourism as emerged as the backbone of the tourism sector of Kerala state which leads to the tremendous increase of Houseboats in addition to many resorts which developed recently around the shore of lake. Kerala comes under the list of 50 places of Life time published by National Geographic Traveler scenic beauty of the region attracts the domestic as well as the foreign tourists. Kuttanad wetland system including Vembanad Lake which is now receiving global attention because of its unique feature which is below sea level permits the cropping of Rice in large quantity and permits the harvest of fish and an area which is thriving for the tourism where the nature beauty is at the peak among the Ramsar site. Percentage of increase of foreign exchange earnings from tourism in Kerala in last decade is 68.9%. Rise of tourism sector results into shift of employment, one or two member from each house is now engaged in tourism industry as houseboat operators or other employment related to house boat and backwater tourism. This shift in employment sector from agricultural to the service sector is caused as a result of change in attitude and perception to the traditional occupation like agriculture. Shift of employment itself indirectly effects the agricultural production of the region. Uncontrolled growth in the number of the houseboat in Vembanadu wetland system affects the environment system of lake. This project focuses on the adverse effect of the backwater tourism growth on the environment system of wetland and livelihood of the area around the lake and to find out a proper waste management system in the region. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW There has been an ample amount of literature in the domains of tourism and its causative factors from various studies conducted around the globe. Many of them are based on different