State could become a case of paradise lost.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: It is well–known that the picture post-card state of Goa, hinged between the turquoise waters of the Arabian Sea and the lush green Western Ghats, offers an idyllic setting for the scores of tourists and lotus eaters alike, who throng its beaches and exotic shacks for sun bathing and fine dining amidst the sounds of the sea coupled with the foot-tapping local music.
But today, a seedy underbelly too masks the pristine beauty of this small state. These days, there is more to the sun and sand, wine and sea food, dances, music and Portuguese cuisine that is on offer in many of the quaint, pretty brown tiled houses and restaurants. On the platter are crime, drugs, sleaze, traffic, overcrowding and the lurking danger that you could be rendered justice, kangaroo court style, via the vigilantes—the mob justice.
As reported here earlier, the state has been reeling under turf wars by drug lords of various nationalities:
Ecstasy, honey-traps and the mafia – the Goan party becomes deadly
Today, the harsh reality has started biting the average tourist – who form a huge bulk of visitors from whom a major source of revenue trickles in. Many are put-off by the now overcrowded beaches and roads busting at its seams with traffic.
And just a couple of hours back at the time of writing this, two young men were stripped, dragged around and then paraded near the Cab de Ram Fort, 80 Kms. south of Panaji. The incident was noticed by the police only after the local press showed footages of this vigilante justice on TV channels.
Police said the men in their early twenties were allegedly suspected of stealing mobile phones, and were handed out ‘’quick justice’’ by a vigilante of about 30 people. Only one of the mob members have been nabbed by the police.
Does this all mean that the state, which was once an enclave of the Portuguese and its stronghold in the peninsula, is losing its charm as a tourism destination? Although tourists still flock to Goa despite the recent negative developments that are threatening to ensnare the state, crime and alienation aimed at the tourists are fast creeping in.
Apart from the crime, there is the fast changing phenomenon of the shifting landscape. The beauty of the environment is being compromised by mushrooming of ungainly concrete structures and the trappings of an urban sprawl. Goa needs more space for tourists who book hotels and accommodations a year in advance.
Income disparity is widening as the nouveau rich are snapping up property for astronomical amounts and the locals are getting relegated to the sidelines and the brink of poverty, taking to crime and violence.
There is also this growing undercurrent of anger aimed at the ‘outsider’. Goa could be the proverbial volcano ready to erupt if the state continues its free fall.
Unless the slide is arrested by the government, by introducing affordable housing to the local population who are feeling the growing pressures of tourism and property boom, the aftereffects could be a sure-shot recipe for disaster.
The root cause of the anger and despair among the local inhabitants has to addressed on a priority basis and not only concentrate only on the flow of revenue into the state coffers by way of property development, drug-money, illegal mining. Otherwise, the state could become a case of paradise lost.