NON-MARKET VALUATION OF THE SOOR SAROVAR BIRD SANCTUARY

SoorSarovar Bird Sanctuary (SSBS), a small human-made natural ecosystem adjoins densely populated Agra on the national highway leading to the Indian capital city of Delhi. The case study evaluates its recreation value in a total ecosystem services context. Zonal Travel cost method was chosen as per the availability of reliable secondary data and the initial qualitative assessment from the visitors. Templates used in the conventional Travel Cost Method survey was contextualized and tested for visitor survey spread to an entire year. The sample size was determined to estimate the mean recreational value with ? 5% precision. MS Excel?s Pivot, Charting and statistical add-on tool were chosen for data analysis. The visitor?s data was categorized into three travel zones within India, and one zone was assigned to foreign nationals. Conventional parameters put recreation value of SSBS as 265 Million Rupees per year. Only six hundred foreign nations out of a total of Sixty-five thousand projected tourists contributed to more than thirty per cent of the consumer surplus. Data analysis also gives insights as to what would make recreation and other services gain optimally. Indicated potential for growth on a substantial recreation value is good news.