As if two busy railway lines on the ground and fighter Jets practicing above are not enough to torment the ears and souls of ‘Cansaulikars’, the Government has now introduced Helicopter joy rides. The Railways are said to be the wheels of our economy and the Jet Fighters are for our defense. Are copter rides also as important? The sorties that take off from a Star Hotel in Arossim, Cansaulim are, as of now, confined along the Beach line but the buzzing noise is enough to disturb the quite of the afternoon. Soon the copters will increase and multiply… Soon they will turn landwards and not only Cansaulikars, but the entire coastal belt of Salcete will have to say good bye to quite afternoon siestas. Soon helicopters will start ferrying up market tourists directly from the airport to the hotels and from the hotels to other destinations like casinos, leaving the local taxi business only the lower end tourists.
The Government of the day will then tell us that they cannot stop helicopters because so many people’s livelihood is depended on this activity! Middle-aged British tourists, Patricia and Kevin Hull are happy regular visitors to Goa for the last 10 years and many of their good friends have also become regular visitors on their recommendations. On Valentine’s Day their lovely holiday (as told to me) was disturbed and they had to lodge a complaint with the Hotel Management for unbearable noise pollution due to the Copter landing and taking off every 10 minutes and also the aviation fuel smell.
According to the Hulls most of the guests are upset with the copter nuisance and have conveyed their feelings to the Hotel Management.
The Government says that copter rides will increase tourist footfalls but it can well prove counter-productive as tourists lazing around on the Beach are severely disturbed by the low flying Copters. Otherwise also, Goa is a small place, why do we want every Tom, Dick and Harry to be our guest at the cost of disturbing our peace and tranquility? Those who want that extra zing and excitement can always go to places like Thailand and Bangkok!
Some days back a friend from Utorda, on his routine daily walk on the beach happened to accidentally step on the Para Sailing Equipment lying on the ground. The water sports operators abused him with the choicest of expletives and when he protested, they threatened to break his bones… A case was registered with the Verna Police. At the Police station the water sports operator had the audacity to admit the verbal abuse and justified it on the ground that they had paid a hefty sum to get the license to operate. Does the license to operate give these guys the right to take over the beach and abuse people?
This reminds me of the Government`s proposal to classify monkeys as vermin. It is we who have encroached on monkey territory, but instead of learning to co-exist, we just want to brand them as nuisance and finish them off! Has the Goa Government heard of things like electrical fencing to keep monkeys away. A Twitter friend commented recently that a time will come when all Goans will be classified as vermin too!
