Sounds like you were going about it in the right way. What I was trying to get at was: did the Karnataka State Government make you follow all the procedures, as they should have done?

I appreciate it is a little off topic, but it may help others who are thinking along your lines to see what should and could be done to set up eco ventures correctly.

As for your question: do you mean an activity that should purely come under the remit of the Forestry Dept? As opposed to private ventures?

Clearly there are many types of eco tourism, it is not restricted to forest areas, hence a simple answer to your question would be no, or partly. You can have eco tourism in deserts and on top of mountains and under the sea, they are not forestry activities.