Killing Miramar Beach in Goa

The tourism season has just begun, but it’s already clear the situation at Miramar has never been worse. Garbage is piled high on the dunes, while unruly throngs of domestic tourists trample the undergrowth without restrictions. Trash keeps getting discarded right up to the waterline. Highly irresponsible joyrides ply directly from the sands all day, with no oversight or safety precautions. There are no life-jackets in sight. Plastic bottles are everywhere. Hawkers and touts ply even in the waves, leaving rubbish trails wherever they go. The lifeguards on duty are vastly outmanned, so there is no one to stop the constant stream of men heading directly behind the high tide mark to urinate in plain view. 

How could this happen in the capital of India’s smallest state, given everything already painfully learned about tourism? The answer lies in a perfect storm of finger-pointing, cavalier neglect and comprehensive mismanagement. The city authorities claim they are not responsible for cleaning the beach. Meanwhile, the Captain of Ports says it can license cruises, but lacks the capacity to regulate what actually happens on board. The proliferating boat vendors collectively insist that Indian tourists refuse to wear life jackets, and they are certainly not to blame when the plastic bottles they hand out end up on the sands. And everyone says the Tourism Department should collect garbage, but it has never actually managed to do so. The end result is chaos reigns.

The tragedy of Miramar is another painful reminder of how tourism has gone devastatingly wrong in Goa. From premium global brand endowed with every natural and historical advantage, the state has become synonymous with sleaze and the lowest common denominator. Look online, and much of its public profile is represented by cheap alcohol, prostitution and gambling.. This is why families are learning to stay away all through the high season, only to be replaced by ever-rowdier groups of thrill-seeking men who believe the normal rules don’t apply here. Such incessant demand eventually creates its own supply, in what economists call a negative feedback loop which leads to rampant disaster, a headlong race to the bottom.

It is true that many other beautiful places in the world have suffered massive destruction due to mass-market tourism without controls. Several other destinations in India have experienced similar problems, and identical damage. Examine the record across the subcontinent, and only Sikkim stands out for managing the influx and its impact somewhat sustainably. But that is no excuse for just how careless and incompetent the state political establishment has proven over a full generation in Goa. In the past decade alone, visitor numbers have exploded far past manageability and reasonable carrying capacity. But instead of heeding multiple warning signs from every direction, authorities have only rammed through unwanted infrastructure projects that will increase the load.

Those egregiously misplaced priorities are glaringly apparent throughout the government’s long-awaited tourism master plan, now available for review and suggestions on the Tourism Department website. Five years in the making, in collaboration with KPMG Advisory Service, there is no assessment or acknowledgement of the heavy cost already paid for tourism activities throughout Goa. Instead, there’s the ominous idea to “consider the entire state as a tourism development area” which would “achieve this goal through a strong diversification…using all relevant and varied tourism assets, wherever they are located.” Some proposals: marinas, golf courses, “high-end music venue”, gambling district, theme park. 

First things first. If the authorities are incapable of managing garbage on the single stretch of sands in its own capital city, then what hope for the rest of the state? What level of trust can exist, when every existing “tourism asset” is swiftly debased to worthlessness, at immense and mounting cost to society and culture? Where is the sense of shame, and the idea of accountability? The sad, stark example of Miramar is constant reminder of everything that has gone awry in Goa in the 21^stcentury.