The internecine low intensity warfare between environment and tourism in Goa has some very worrying constructs. Environment somehow never comes in the way of mammoth projects like golf courses and bridges like the Tiracol bridge built specifically to serve the interests of the Golf Course and villa project. But it does when it comes to shacks run by local Goans, as their only means of business and the last magnet that draws tourists to Goa. Here environment makes its point like a sledgehammer, in the shape of the bulldozer, stopping operations of shacks allotted legally, by the same government. This is what happened in Majorda and Utroda, when the tourism department, acting on the directive of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, issued in response to a supposed order of the National Green Tribunal Order decided to stop operations of around 15 shacks in the Majorda-Utorda beach stretch.
While the CRZ notification 2011 and rules governing the construction and running of beach shacks in the Goa tourism policy, should govern the running of all shacks, there are crucial questions that need to be answered, on whether the biggest interface between tourists and the State of Goa, shacks and their owners need better handling.
In the specific instance of the Majorda incident, advocate Radharao Gracias, who has taken up for the shack owners says that the order of the National Green Tribunal was specific only to private shacks and not to the beach shacks, which were forced to close down operations and that too during lunch time when tourists were either eating or lazing on their deck beds. Obviously the finer nuances of keeping your domestic problems temporarily on hold when there are guests at home, are beyond comprehension of those who run tourism as well as those who protect environment.
In this specific instance the petition which was filed in the NGT was against private beach shacks and their various violations including that of the High Tide Line. It is also a fact that the sensitive dunes on beaches have been severely affected and shacks that are allotted according to a policy, violate most of the conditions on the basis of which licenses have been granted. Sewage and garbage disposals are the responsibility of shack owners, but the government cannot turn itself into a non stake holder, when for years, shacks have been the draw for tourists. And while violations which effect the long term health of the beach need to be stopped, the cherry picking of small shacks — which in this specific instance — were not the subject of the NGT order – have only one fallout. They ensure that fewer and fewer tourists return to Goa.
The long-term health of beaches and sand dunes has been the subject of intense study. Corrective actions have also been detailed by the GCZMA. But why is it, that in the name of corrective action, the softest targets are identified and not the biggest violators? If the beaches have to be fed and nourished by the winds and hence they should be devoid of the clutter of shacks, the same should hold true for seven star hotels. If there are issues of underground water and rampant use of pipelines to tap into water resources to feed structures on the beach, why should — purely as an example — a shack like Balton in Utorda, owned by two local boys, Balthazar and Tony, be treated differently from a Leading Hotels Golf Course and Villa in Tiracol?
If the CRZ notification 2011 is about protection of beaches and dunes, why do small shacks always have to witness the sight of uniformed policemen forcibly stopping operations albeit armed by an order — when tourists are in the shacks. This is about a sensitive approach towards our smallest stakeholders, who incidentally have far less violations to their name, than the mammoth multi-crore projects, which get environment clearances, dictated by specific orders given by the top echelons of Government.
Moreover, with the tourist season at its lowest ebb, there needs to be a serious consultation between the GCZMA, the Pollution Control Board and the Tourism Department, to be tourism sensitive. At the same time, there should be an equal policy for award of clearances and punishments for violations, which could begin by giving time to course correct rather than demolish or stop mid way through the season.
The sand dunes have to be protected. But will they be better protected if the small shacks go and the mammoth resorts, for which the tourism minister wants to change the CRZ rules – remain?
