IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE LIVELIHOOD DEPENDENT ON BUDDHIST TOURISM IN NALANDA REGION

Abstract

The COVID -19 has challenged the most advanced from of human civilization. From the highly developed Nations such as; the USA, Britain, France & Italy to the developing countries like India and many other small Asian countries, nobody was prepared for this pandemic, not even all these great Nations. Our Nation, too had faced this pandemic, with sudden a call for complete shutdown of markets. All time, the running cities were stopped, governments of almost all Nation imposed strict lockdown, people with no other options went back to their home without even prepared for the upcoming months. Almost all the sectors, private, public and even educational institutions were completely shut down which later bear so much costs.  One such sector is tourism which was completely come to a standstill because of this unprepared and untimely virulent outbreak.

Thus, many lives had been lost all across the Nations and many are still bearing the loss and in a place like India, where majority of the people were daily wagers or the seasonal contract workers. They are the one that undergone through the hardest battle, to meet their daily needs or essential commodities.

Therefore, in this paper an attempt has been made, to study the impact of covid-19 in the lives of those people, who are living near the ancient Nalanda ruins. The region of Nalanda is known for its famous ancient Nalanda ruins and several other great historical sites and Jain temples that were of major tourist interests. Each year, thousands of foreigners or tourists visited here that somehow directly or indirectly played an important role in the lives and the livelihood of people living near the sites. This paper will mainly focus on the economic aspects or the economic hardships they have faced before and after COVID -19