Go Goa, Responsibly!
Following are my notes from discussions with Ms. Puja Mitra, the founder of Terra Conscious and former head of WWF operations in Goa. Ms. Mitra has been working in the field of marine ecosystem conservation in Goa since a long time, with a special focus on responsible tourism. Combining the efforts for responsible tourism with livelihood generation, her organisation Terra Conscious runs responsible dolphin watching tours in partnership with boat-partners from local community on various beaches in Goa. Some notes from our conversation on marine ecosystem and beyond:
Terra Conscious
- TC focuses not just on Dolphins but on overall marine ecosystem in Goa, including corals, turtles, effects of mining and coal dumping etc.
- They work with lifeguards across the Goan cost to keep track of the carcasses found on the coastline and have also created maps based on this. They have an app called Drishti through which the lifeguards can connect to them. TC also makes sure the carcass is buried properly, and autopsy is performed if needed- although Puja is of the opinion that the Goan government is not yet equipped to do proper autopsies.
- TC is looking to map the scene of responsible tourism in Goa – where can you eat, what can you eat (like what fish to eat when), what activities you can do when etc. Its also a part of Center for Responsible Tourism in Goa.
Dolphins in Goan marine ecosystem : - The humpbacks found in Goa are coastal dolphins, which means that they stay within the distance of 2-3 kms from the coast, they can’t dive deeper than 20mtrs and cant go further into the sea (This is also the area where most water sports and other tourist activity happens). These dolphins can hold their breath under water only for 7-8 minutes and the smaller ones can do it for even lesser. - Dolphins are very territorial and often when anthropogenic activity increases in one area they start moving to another area BUT they aren’t always welcome there and the weaker dolphins might be chased away, get lesser nutrition etc. - The major reasons why dolphins are harmed are killed are suspected to be: being caught in old, discarded nets, navy activity which disturbs the sonar-based communication system of the mammals forcing them to come into shallow waters, territorial nature. - Often boats surround and enclose the dolphins, which disorients them – its being done more and more as the number of dolphins decreases and the pressure on the boatmen to show dolphins to the customers increases. - Dolphins often have to changed their normal swimming course to avoid boats, this drains their energy and they cant do the other activities they need to do to survive, like socialising, hunting, feeding etc.
- Turtles and fish are harmed greatly by plastic in the ocean. Turtles are specially vulnerable because they eat jellyfish and often can’t differentiate between jellyfish and plastic flowing.
Licensing and Regulation Gaps: - There is no permission required from the forest department in terms of zones one can do the dolphin watching tours or water-sports in, or how many trips a boat can take, etc. Only a licence of commercial boat is needed. - There is a queue system to take the boat into water for these tours. This fails because on the busier beaches, there are upto 280 boats on one beach, all competing for the same area. A boat thus has to wait longer and longer to get its turn. This often makes sure that the boatmen go even into choppy waters or when weather warnings have been issued - Government has fixed the price at 300Rs for each trip, since the competition is so high and 300 Rs is not enough money, the boatmen give additional ‘services’ like alcohol and food onboard, often the advertisements have foreign female tourists with alcohol, along with the dolphins as an add-on? - The new Master Tourism plan (made by KPMG) has marked oceanic as well as land areas into strict zones with a lot of zones like that for sports overlapping with the dolphin and whale habitat.
Coral Reefs
- Often tourist boats that are not familiar with the coral areas go there and plant anchors at spaces which can severely destroy the corals, hit divers and kill sea animals. - Coral reefs also provide shelter for fishes and act as complete ecosystems for the marine flora and fauna. - In Goa, coal is being dumped as close as 7kms from the corals near the Vasco port.
CRZ guidelines violation: - The CRZ rules put Goan coast line under their zoning number 3 which means that no construction can be done upto 200mtrs from the line of the high-tide. This rule though is being vehemently opposed by the shack owners, who want the CRZ buffer to be decreased to 50mtrs. - Its very ironic because the same shacks are the first ones to get flooded when the water levels rise- which is happening more and more. On the Keri beach, shacks have been drowned twice in 2 months already.
- According to the new master tourism plan, all these shacks will be removed to give license to big hotels to come up in their place. The government believes that the hotels will be more diligent in following rules. Although that has not been the case with hotels like W and Leela and the branches of Taj. W even has a sewer pipe that goes right into the ocean at the Anjuna beach.
