Take a journey back to circa the early 1990s. It was a time when the beaches of Goa could still be called pristine, when you could fearlessly walk barefoot on the sands, when the term beach cleaning had not yet been heard in the State. It was the time, when you could, if you cared to, walk along the beaches from Velsao to Cavelossim with the sea on one side and fishermen’s huts, palm trees and sand dunes on the other, and you only paused sporadically to gawk at the Majorda Beach Resort, and upon reaching Fatrade the then Ramada Beach Resort that was still in stages of completion, and further in Cavelossim the resorts that had just about begun to set up concrete columns that would later turn into luxury resorts. And if you drove down the village roads from Velsao to Cavelossim, you only blew the horn to warn the ambulatory cyclist that you were coming around a blind curve or paused to let the stray domestic pig family scurry to the other side of the road and to safety. The houses you passed by were residencies where people lived, and after a spot of lunch at Pedro’s at Benaulim, the drive took you through a long stretch of green fields on either side, before Gafinos Resort loomed up in Cavelossim, followed by the Old Anchor. That was just a few years ago, but looking back almost another era.
Cut to the present, the late 2010s. The beaches you walk on can hardly be termed pristine. The silver and white sands are shades of brown, the fear of walking barefoot on the beaches is pronounced as broken bottles and even shards of light bulbs abound in the sand. Beach cleaning is a multi-crore business and has even taken the shades of a scam. A walk along the waters of the Arabian Sea on the same stretch has the waves breaking on the shore on one side bringing in plastic and other refuse, and an endless line of concrete resorts all the way to Cavelossim on the other, with shacks and beach beds encroaching upon the sand, hawkers peddling their wares, water sport operators approaching you with the promise of a thrilling ride, and lifeguards blowing their whistles vainly attempting to call back tourists who have ventured too far out in the sea. The drive on the village roads is slowed by speed breakers placed at irregular intervals, the horn is used out of irritation to warn the motorist in front to give way, and many of the heritage houses have turned into commercial establishments doubling over as restaurants, boutiques, showrooms and art galleries, having eased out the families living in them to set up shop. Pedro’s still exists in Benaulim but has half a dozen competitors in the vicinity, and upon reaching Cavelossim, after have driven by patches of uncultivated fields and concrete structures, one has to look carefully to find Gafinos Resort, which almost appears to have been dwarfed by the ‘development’ that has sprouted around it.
Few people living the still ‘susegado’ life in the Goa of the late 1980s, and even the early 1990s, could have imagined the changes that the then fledgling tourism industry would bring to the State, and the adjustments that would have to be made to keep pace with the change. Three decades since that time, the Goan landscape has altered drastically, and the verdict on whether it is for the better or the worse is still out, and will perhaps be out for a long time.
Take another journey now in the present, a short one and not necessarily to the Southern coastal beaches of Salcete. Go north to Pernem, and turn away from the coast towards the interior areas that are still green, to the Mopa plateau that was largely agricultural and a grazing ground until recently. That landscape is going to change soon, and how is still pretty much unimaginable, though an attempt to picture it can be made.
So time now to look forward, not too far into the distance, just to a decade from now, at the year 2027 perhaps, as the pace of change and development is now galloping, rather than trotting as it did earlier. The bridges currently under construction over the Rivers Mandovi and Zuari will have been ready long before that, so too the highway expansion to handle the additional traffic. The airport at Mopa, with an initial capacity of handling 5 million passengers annually will be operational, with the provision to scale up the passenger handling capacity as per the demands and as the other phases of the airport are taken up for construction. A new Planning and Development Authority at Pernem will have cleared ‘planned development’ in the area. Pause a moment, the PDA there has a proposed Floor Area Ratio that could be relaxed to 4 – the highest in the State, which currently is at 2.5 in the Patto area of the capital Panjim. And suddenly the attempt to imagine the change does become indescribable, indeed unimaginable.
Development cannot be stopped, but it can be meticulously planned taking into account the carrying capacity and of the land, the need of the project and its sustainability. Goa today is like a vehicle hurtling on the freeway of development, its driver believing that the sheet of water on the hot road ahead is a mirage and there is no need to take the foot off the accelerator pedal. But what if the sheet of water is not just an optical illusion, and there exists the grim possibility of slipping badly on the water, leading to a disaster? That calls for another pause, and before the New Year to take some time off the festivities so as to reflect and ask the question: Goa, where are you going?
(Alexandre Moniz Barbosa is Executive Editor, Herald).
