Any attempts being made by the salvage company, to move the grounded vessel Lucky 7 from Miramar beach are not fruitful and the large vessel remains on the shore, an eye sore and a potential threat to the beach and the surrounding environment. Despite claims by the salvage company that it will tow the vessel, the exercise can only happen successfully when the monsoon sea calms down, and since Goa is just at the midpoint of the season, that could take another couple of months.
Even as the vessel stands there, the clichés of how unlucky it has been for Lucky 7 have been repeatedly spoken of over the days, but the question is whether it is Lucky 7 that has been unlucky or is it the Miramar beach that is unlucky to have that ship stranded there.
The vessel may have got damaged, but it can and will be repaired. At some point of time it will be towed away and taken to a dock where the dents and scratches will be patched up and any major faults will also be fixed. It will be refloated and function as a casino which is the purpose for which it has entered Goa waters, but what about the damage to the Miramar beach and its shoreline? What about the dredging operations that lifted sand from around the grounded vessel and dropped it elsewhere as the salvage company attempted to create a path for the vessel to be pulled into deeper water and hence towed to a dock in Maharashtra for repairs?
But who is going to restore Miramar beach?
It is Miramar beach that has been more unlucky than the vessel. The grounding of the vessel has already led to some sand erosion that is visible, especially along the beach and the sand dunes. You do not need a scientific study to conclude that the vessel that remains grounded on the shore is acting as a wall against the breaking of the waves which will lead to a change in the beach structure. Anyone walking along the beach will notice the change. And that is why Miramar beach is unluckier than the vessel, and more thought has to be paid to the environmental damage to the beach than the ship.
This is not the first time that the State is facing such a disaster. Goa had a long and expensive experience with the River Princess that grounded off Candolim beach in a storm one night in June 2005. It took 12 years before the ship was finally cut up and removed from the sea. But, the grounding of the Lucky 7 didn’t follow the pattern of the River Princess and it didn’t wash upon the Goan shore in a storm. It created a storm of its own when it attempted to enter the River Mandovi during the monsoon, a season when a sand bar at the mouth of the river halts the movement of large vessels in and out of the river, and then it grounded. The Lucky 7 disaster can definitely be called a man-made disaster, that is fast turning into a tourist attraction.
If the River Princess on the Candolim shoreline attracted tourists, than Lucky 7 is turning out to do the same in Miramar, but if River Princess remained out of reach of the people as it was a distance from the shoreline, in Miramar people are walking up to the grounded vessel and touching it by standing on dry sand. But this tourist attraction could be a disaster for Panjim. Unless it is moved out immediately and the sea waters allowed to reach the shore unimpeded, the environmental costs of this grounding could be many.
