Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently made a public appeal after the latest drowning incident involving a tragedy at the Mainapi waterfall in Sanguem taluka, in which two persons drowned. “I request all people to avoid venturing near waterfalls,” he appealed.
“Tourists visiting the state are unaware of the unaware of the depth of the water near the waterfalls and one should not venture into water after drinking liquor. Since last one & a half months, 15 to 20 persons have died due to drowning,” Sawant said.
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The Goa government even posted lifeguards at such water bodies as a temporary measure. South Goa administration as well as the state chief wildlife warden also issued separate directives deterring people from visiting waterfalls in the forested areas, which are centres of attraction for locals as well as tourists.
Even South Goa District Magistrate issued an advisory to general public and tourists to refrain from entering, taking bath or swimming in water bodies, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, mining pits etc, during the ongoing monsoon season in view of several drowning incidents reported in South Goa.
Incidentally Forest Minister is on record, saying that Government is examining which water body spots or waterfalls to be allowed for the tourists and locals in coming days, after a comprehensive evaluation of all the safety factors. A high level, Forest Department official has been deputed for this task.
In the mean time, an adventure events company has posted advertisements online, soliciting customers for a trek to Sada Waterfall on July 23. While the Sada waterfall might fall in Karnataka, where the judicial powers of Goa do not apply; but the concerned tourist-operator from Goa should have heeded to the advisory issued by Goa Government.
It is shocking that the said tour operator has overlooked the basic fact that waterfalls like Sada, situated on higher echelons of Ghats like Chorla, are very susceptible to random events like sudden gush of water and cloudburst.
Such events always catch the tourists totally off-guard, leading to grave and huge disaster, with several families shattered for life.
This brings in the question, why such instances of Government advisory to tourists and tourist operators go on deaf ears?
Goa does not seem to have an effective Adventure Tourism Policy. Which means, neither there are proper guidelines for such adventure tour operators, nor any strict
supervision.
Does the Government of Goa know how many such adventure tourism operator operates in the state, what is their state of operations, are they fit enough even to operate, especially from the tourist safety point of view?
The recent deaths at waterfall and quarries have demonstrated that safety is not an issue; unless there is a fatality.
Now Government is saying that it would patrol such waterfalls. Collectors are asked to report on how many Laterite quarries are there in their jurisdiction, where a sensible government could have done all this long before the monsoon started.
When the Government of Goa itself is found to be frantic, what could be the state of other such tourist-operators is a question mark. Government of Goa has been always exhorting the domestic tourists to be “responsible”, but the fact of matter is the government itself doesn’t seem to know how “responsible” the tourist operators are?
