I think it heavily depends on how one such place is administered. There is a thing called 'footfall in nature' and unfortunately with a poor administration of people coming in it is likely to do more harm than good.

So, as an individual, I do not geo-tag anything that I find undisturbed. You might feel that I am a self-centred guy who want people to stay away from such hidden but beautiful places. If you feel that way, you are right about me.

Based on a decade-long experience in trekking in Western Ghats of India, looking at the current situation, I feel the less the people venture into nature, the better it is.

Case 1: Devkund trek banned for trekkers for the entire season

Devkund is a very scenic waterfall about 100 km away from two major metro cities of India. It lies the region which is an integral part of a major irrigation and hydro-electricity project in the state. A decade ago when I went there for the first time, we were only 6 people at the place. Recently, I saw the same place with about 1000 people, dancing around, playing loud music, littering everywhere, consuming alcohol like there is no tomorrow. This change is worst for a fragile ecosystem. Although local residents are making decent money out of the whole thing in the trending season, authorities have no fallback plan to control the amount of footfall affecting the region.

The only fallback plan they could think of is: Police want to stop trekking in area

Case 2: Seasonal trekkers venturing out like frogs in rain.

Death toll rises during monsoon

In monsoon, on a particular trek usually a 1000 to 2000 trekkers are present on a given day. Most of them are not aware of 'Leave No Trace', most of them are hooligans. This situation is majorly due to Poor administration at places, uncontrolled formations of commercial trekking groups WITHOUT any regulation and compliance check. Every Tom-Dick-Harry forms a trekking organisation based on Facebook and Instagram, gathers a hundred people based on his/her experience of 10 treks last season. Geo-tagging, GPS tracks is their primary plan. On an average a group usually bring about 100 clients. They are hardly 4-5 people guiding(?) 100 people up the mountain. This is a recipe for disaster.

On the optimistic hand I see thing this way: I never go out on a plan to discover one such place, which will elude people. I know my region well based on a decade-long (short) trekking experience, and yet I had to explore leaving a well-marked trail to get to some of the magical places. Those remain magical (not literally) because there aren't any hooligans visiting those places in hundreds of numbers at a time. I'd rather suggest not to disclose the location by any means. Trekkers, who are experience enough, who have worked hard enough to know the region well, they will eventually get there, just like I did :-)

So, in a nutshell, as long as I am in India, I'll avoid geo-tagging purely because authorities and administrators fail miserably to control how many people visit the place, and basically how disciplined the visitors are.

I think it heavily depends on how one such place is administered. There is a thing called 'footfall in nature' and unfortunately with a poor administration of people coming in it is likely to do more harm than good.

So, as an individual, I do not geo-tag anything that I find undisturbed. You might feel that I am a self-centred guy who want people to stay away from such hidden but beautiful places. If you feel that way, you are right about me.

Based on a decade-long experience in trekking in Western Ghats of India, looking at the current situation, I feel the less the people venture into nature, the better it is.

Case 1: Devkund trek banned for trekkers for the entire season

Devkund is a very scenic waterfall about 100 km away from two major cities of India. It lies the region which is an integral part of a major irrigation and hydro-electricity project in the state. A decade ago when I went there for the first time, we were only 6 people at the place. Recently, I saw the same place with about 1000 people, dancing around, playing loud music, littering everywhere, consuming alcohol like there is no tomorrow. This change is worst for a fragile ecosystem. Although local residents are making decent money out of the whole thing in the trending season, authorities have no fallback plan to control the amount of footfall affecting the region.

The only fallback plan they could think of is: Police want to stop trekking in area

Case 2: Seasonal trekkers venturing out like frogs in rain.

Death toll rises during monsoon

In monsoon, on a particular trek usually a 1000 to 2000 trekkers are present on a given day. Most of them are not aware of 'Leave No Trace', most of them are hooligans. This situation is majorly due to Poor administration at places, uncontrolled formations of commercial trekking groups WITHOUT any regulation and compliance check. Every Tom-Dick-Harry forms a trekking organisation based on Facebook and Instagram, gathers a hundred people based on his/her experience of 10 treks last season. Geo-tagging, GPS tracks is their primary plan. On an average a group usually bring about 100 clients. They are hardly 4-5 people guiding(?) 100 people up the mountain. This is a recipe for disaster.

On the optimistic hand I see thing this way: I never go out on a plan to discover one such place, which will elude people. I know my region well based on a decade-long (short) trekking experience, and yet I had to explore leaving a well-marked trail to get to some of the magical places. Those remain magical (not literally) because there aren't any hooligans visiting those places in hundreds of numbers at a time. I'd rather suggest not to disclose the location by any means. Trekkers, who are experience enough, who have worked hard enough to know the region well, they will eventually get there, just like I did :-)

So, in a nutshell, as long as I am in India, I'll avoid geo-tagging purely because authorities and administrators fail miserably to control how many people visit the place, and basically how disciplined the visitors are.