Goa is blessed with beautiful beaches. The Sun, the sand, and the surf are enthralling. Making sand castles and collecting shells is a favourite pastime of children of all ages. A pleasing sight to see people running, relaxing, frolicking in water, or getting their feet massaged; everyone happily oblivious to the pain of the sea.
For three days, during every walk along the 1.3 km beach that we stayed near, we picked up about 10 kilos of garbage, all that makes the sea uncomfortable. With every wave it throws back at the revellers all that they throw in the sea with utter irreverence. If only we could teach our children to pick up wrappers of chips and chocolates on the beach along with sea shells. If only those having fun didn’t leave behind beer cans, mineral water bottles, cigarette buts and tetra pack. If only those tanning themselves could pick up shampoo sachets and lotion tubes.
The sea has so much to return to human beings; so much that we nonchalantly discard either directly into the vastness of the sea thinking that the sea has infinite capacity to hide our shame, or all that travels indirectly into the sea exhibiting our lack of sensitivity to our resources: plastic playing cards, pieces of broken toys, toothpaste tubes, nylon threads from fishermen’s nets, glass bottles etc. The irony was that the sea even threw back plastic bags for us to collect and carry the garbage in.
The pity was that the locals neither prevented tourists from leaving behind rubbish nor appreciated us for collecting it; they said it was the duty of those assigned to keep the beach clean. The sad part was that no one who came to the beach to enjoy themselves lent a helping hand.
The paradox was that the beach safety squad was interested in the security of the tourists by not letting them go close to the water as the sea was not safe during the monsoons but none of them was keen to keep the sea safe.
Saving the sea is the only way to save beach tourism, besides helping marine life and the environment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A former Election Commissioner. He is a civil servant from the Haryana cadre, he has held senior positions in government in Finance and Environment, among others.
