Shock and anger at Miramar this week, as bulldozers suddenly began tearing through one of the last stands of casuarina trees, in yet another orgy of concretisation without any clarity or public consultation. Once again, citizens of Panjim are victims of Smart City running rampant in its consistent pattern of criminal disregard for due process, the environment, and public interest. This latest outrage is beyond folly; monsoon seas continue to erode the land, but the government is dismantling the city’s last surviving defences against the tide. However, badly the capital has already suffered from flooding in the era of climate change, we now know it’s going to get very much worse.
“A beach is the property of the ocean,” says veteran scientist Dr Antonio Mascarenhas, who studied Miramar extensively over many years at National Institute of Oceanography at Dona Paula. “Beaches function like playing fields of the mighty ocean. A wide and high beach, backed by tall and massive dunes, and capped by luxuriant vegetation, is the one and only alternative for the natural coastal ecosystem. There is no compromise on this scheme.” However, we have gone so far in the wrong direction in Goa that “in my opinion, the tipping point is over. There is no working link between politics, politician, policy, society. Unless this happens - and it appears unlikely the funeral of our sandy coast, in particular, is not too far.”
Mascarenhas says “climate change is real; it is happening. Associated weather changes such as enhanced cyclonic activity translates itself into stronger winds, higher wave heights, agitated sea – the net effect being that sea waves break further up the beach, and the wave run-up directly attacks sand dunes. This is one of the causes of enhanced annual erosion that we observe lately. The United Nations secretary general has already issued a ‘code red’ as an international warning. More is yet to come, but it appears our managers have relegated these reports to the dust bin.”
About the unnecessary wreckage of Miramar’s surviving vegetation, Mascarenhas says, “it is obvious that the smart city managers have zero knowhow about coastal regulations. Dune vegetation implies sand binding which contributes towards beach stability. It protects the hinterland from strong winds and high waves. The tsunami of 2004 has proved this. Here, an aggressive dune plantation programme of coastal native floral species is needed. A progressive zonation of floral species from grass, creepers, shrubs, bushes, taller trees is ideal. Note also that the entry point of Miramar is impacted by excessive footfalls, and should necessarily have just two designated pathways to the beach. A sincere management initiative is needed here.”
That last point is crucial, because Smart City has the record of amateurishly conceived and appallingly mediocre (but extremely costly) constructions, and also an extraordinary negligence towards upkeep and management. This rogue agency builds very badly, then abandons, with no moral regard to responsibility. This is why the Miramar walkways built for prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit last December are already broken to bits in several sections, with their main purpose seemingly having been to allow garbage to suffocate every last scrap of green in that once pristine beach environment.
It doesn’t have to be this way, says Dr Nandini Velho, the distinguished wildlife biologist “We are lucky to have open spaces like Miramar, which has important mental health benefits for all of us, something that we appreciated during Covid. Researchers have reported the wide-nose guitarfish and sea horses in hand nets here, and there are endangered Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins that I frequently see in the shallower parts. We are lucky to have researchers like Dr Antonio Mascarenhas here, who have Miramar as their study area. Therefore, it seems like a wasted opportunity when the government and Smart City aren’t able to bring citizens and people together for the better health of this great public asset. When we went for a walk on the beach a few months ago, Dr Mascarenhas and I said we both feel a great loss about its deterioration, but it’s difficult to know where to start, and how to articulate this.”
Velho told me the Facebook group Goa Collective had showcased an interesting perspective from Luxembourgish urbanist Léon Krier “where if the principles of modern planning were made into a theoretical omelette, you would eat tomatoes on Monday, onions on Tuesday, eggs on Wednesday, and so on.” She said, “today I would argue, with the lack of participatory democracy, and top-heavy would-be superstructures like Smart City, there isn’t even clarity on what that theoretical omelette is. The solutions are simple but low-budget, (and) we have some of the most active citizens who have kept alive what's left of the State and the city, you know what a smart thing to do would have been.”
It's very hard to watch what you love being irresponsibly destroyed, but that’s precisely what has happened as Miramar is being mismanaged to the point of demise; terrible garbage management, ten times as many tourists than comfortable, highly irresponsible hop-on/hop-off cruises, and all the egregious concretisation. It’s all very different from just two years ago, let alone when Puja Mitra took over as the Senior Coordinator for the Worldwide Fund for its Goa office is behind the Science Centre in 2014. Since then, this tireless advocate for the environment has become one of the foremost champions of sustainable tourism in India, including via her own, pioneering, terra-conscious initiative.
Mitra says “Goa is unique. In a very small area you have 5 Schedule I marine species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of India (coral reefs, mangroves, dolphins/porpoises, sea turtles and the Indian Mugger). It is part of the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. Yet these wildlife and natural ecosystems see little to no reflection in the state's tourism strategy, marketing, laws or projects. Unfortunately, the push is always for bigger players, corporate conglomerates, large chains, which have outdated ideas around beach properties, hence they build with concrete and then need to keep reinforcing it with more concrete, just to prevent structural damage which will of course happen because you cannot control how the wave action and beach erosion will impact the structural safety of these mammoth constructions, especially with climate change impacts.”
There’s no confusion about what has to be done, and Mitra summarizes nicely: “The only way out to have any beach left in the future, and therefore any beach-based tourism, especially in a low-lying area like Panjim, is to restore sand dunes and local vegetation, ban concrete altogether, and use lighter, eco-friendly materials if at all a structure is to be created. In addition, you can work with Goa's excellent existing network of nature educators, marine and coastal researchers, and responsible tourism operators, to create engaging programmes. You can train local boat operators to transform their practices into being more ethical and sustainable, so that you can really highlight the local marine species, and place knowledge signage on the beach with guidelines for tourist behaviour. You absolutely do not need to destroy anything to provide a tourism service. All you need is a change in mindset.”
(Vivek Menezes is a writer and co-founder of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival)