Eco Tourism is a purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the cultural and natural history of environment, taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people. Ecotourism can be conceptualised as nature based, ecologically sustainable, where education and interpretation is a major component and where local people are benefited can be called ecotourism. If it does not satisfy any one of these components then it cannot be called a real ecotourism venture.
Konni is a small town in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala famous for the Elephant cage and elephant training centre. This hilly town is boardered with Konni and Achenkovil reserve forests. Part of journey to Kuttavanchi (bowl boat / coracle boat) in Adavi is through this forest. This is one of the tourist places to see in Pathanamthitta district and is a part of the konni eco-tourism project.
Thenmala, which lies at the conjunction of the Kollam-Shencottah road and the Trivandrum-Shencottah road, boasts of India's first planned Eco-tourism destination. It has 10 Eco-tourism spots that cover the great hill ranges of Trivandrum, Pathanamthitta and Quilon districts. ‘Thenmala’ translates to 'Honey Hill' and so it is no surprise that high quality honey is exported from this area. The surrounding dense forest is also known for the timber that is in much demand across the country. Its terrain is dotted by forests, rubber and tree plantations and was selected by the World Tourism Organisation as one of the premier eco-friendly projects in the world.