Courtney Gloyn

Courtney is a Kiwi and was here for 5 weeks as an Ecotourism volunteer. She came to India to see the effects of tourism in a fragile environment such as Corbett Reserve and to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing a Tiger in its natural habitat. This came true during a 2 day visit to Dhikala, a beautiful part of the reserve. Visiting India for the first time was fascinating and confusing all rolled into one for her – but it stole her heart and she will forever return and convince others to do the same.

The bulk of her time was spent beginning a research project on a complex aspect of tourism that takes part in the buffer zone of the reserve – Elephant Safaris. They have (hopefully temporarily) been banned due to villagers outcry that they increased man/animal conflict.

Courtney conducted extensive villager interviews, trying to gauge their opinion. She also collected quantitative data from 30 years of Forest Department information and assessed historical media coverage on the topic of man/animal conflict. The work continues…

Courtney’s aspirations for her future include owning her own ecolodge in New Zealand and annually volunteering on projects abroad – watch this space!