DIP: 18.02.S09/20251004 
DOI: 10.25215/2455/1004S09 
Abstract
Tourism is a key catalyst through which rural development can be achieved in a sustainable way. After COVID pandemic, ‘Nature-Based Tourism’ or ‘Special Interest Tourism’ emerge rapidly. As a combination of these two, Astro-tourism offers immense roles to create social, economic and environmental benefits in remote areas. Astro-tourism is an emerging type of sustainable community-based tourism which attracts people travelling to destinations where they can enjoy the dark sky with free of light and air pollution. India is the potent prime destination of astro-tourism due to its favourable social, economic and environmental factors. Despite seeing a strong growth in recent years, astro-tourism is the lesser-known sector in India. In this backdrop, the study aims to analyse, how astro-tourism will be the strong sustainable livelihood option in Indian context. The study is descriptive in nature and based on secondary data, which were collected from various websites and research articles. The study reveals that supporting astro-tourism in India will not only appeal more and more tourists but will also increase the employment opportunity, particularly in rural areas. Astro-tourism is a balanced option by which India`s unemployment and pollution problem can be mitigated simultaneously.
The author(s) appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process. 
The author(s) declared no conflict of interest. 
ISSN 2455-670X