Tourism Issues in Public Domain

Tourism Issues in

Public Domain

March 1994

Contents

1. A Highway to Prosperity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

• Ajit Koujalgi

2. Issues of Land Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

• Nina Rao

3. The Bane of Cultural Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

• C. K.Meena

4. Coastal Conundrum ................... 29

• Tapas Ray

:; Confronting lNCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

• Joshua Karliner

6. Bekal Tourism Project. . .. 49

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•

Foreword

Operating in an area of activity (critique of tourism issues) generally considered as 'unconventionai'; we derive satisfaction whenever we find these issues reflected in the so-called 'mainstream'.

As such, we are happy to be able to publish - from secondary sources - articles and papers that discuss several of the issues we have been involved in over the past year or so. With a single exception, all were written by friends (including members of the Board) of EQUATIONS, and we are proud to acknowledge their contribution to the evolution of tourism critique in India.

Ajit Koujalgi's piece on the East Coast Highway in Tamilnadu (also known as the East Coast Road) amply details the ecological and other objections to this massive project. EQUATIONS has been an active member of the East Coast Road Campaign Committee - the only non-Tamilnadu based member - which has been in the forefront of action against the project.

Nina Rao's pap3r on Golf illustrates the need to locate the antigolf campaign - spreading in various regions of the world - within an understanding of international tourism's 'fourth periphery', and in the context of conflicting demands on land-use. EQUATIONS drew attention to, in a study last year, a golf resort coming up near Bangalore, focusing on the effects it is likely to have both ecologically, a's well as in terms of displacing local populations socially and economically.

C K Meena's article on the commodification of the Gajamela (known to Kerala's Tourism Department as the Great Elephant March) leads us to reflect more intensively on the cultural impact assumptions which are so much a part of anti-tourism activity. Once again, we were involved in some of the campaign

iii

preparation, and present at the protest action, well-documented by our photographer friend Natesh Ullal.

Tapas Ray's detailed coverage of the controversial deal involving thousands of acres of revenue and forest land in Orissa includes the objections raised by the Orissa Krushak Mahasangh (Orissa Farmers' Federation), and the struggle led by it against this. While the campaign has now taken on a lower profile, EQUATIONS is in touch with the leaders of the Mahasangh as plans for a future course of action are being drawn up.

Also, we have included an open letter we wrote last July, in response to a media debate that took place (between a senior Kerala Tourism department official and environmentalists) on the huge Special Tourism Area project at Sekal. Apart from this letter, we have been involved in various ways on the Sekal issue, including an audio-visual we have just produced for greater public awareness of the project.

Finally, we are happy to share with our readers, an article by our friend Josh Karliner on strategies that NGOs and activists could adopt against multinationals operating in the Third World. As tourism becomes increasingly dominated by multinational corporations, we believe it is time we evolved effective campaigns which take into account this reality. Certainly, this has been one reason we focused part of our efforts last year on the role of economic liberalisation (and the so-called New Economic Policy) in the Tourism Action Plan of 1993.

We hope this publication will encourage readers to get involved in and support the actions of people concerned \vith tourism in India. We would certainly appreciate your responses, suggestions and comments.

K T Suresh Coordinator

iv

A highway to prosperity? A/it Kou/algi

The Tamil Nadu District Highways and Rural Works Department (DHRW) wants to convert an existing coastal road in bad repai r into a double lane h ighway, th ree or fou r t imes increase i n

width , half a metre rise in height and realignment in several sections. The scheme , if ful ly implemented, wil l' resu lt in displacement of hundreds of famil ies and the fel l ing of over 6,000 age-old trees. The " improvement" is felt necessary for the "development" of the coastal region.

The scheme, if fully implemented, will result in

The project is named " improvement of East Coast Road" . Much displacement of of the confrontation is centred on what constitutes " improvement". hundreds of

But this is not just a semantic debate. The DHRW is wel l aware that families and the

h ighway projects requ ire an Environmental I mpact Assessment felling ofover 6,000 a,ge-old

( EIA) according to the M in istry of Environment and Forests' (MEF) trees. Environmental Guidelines for Rail/Road/Highway Projects. These gu idelines requ i re evaluation of i mpacts, examination of costlbenefits of the alternatives, g ive two-year advance notice to people who will be dislocated, arrange alternative housing , even for the squatters , and so on. These gu ideli nes and also the provisions of the M EF Coastal Zone Regulations (CZR), formulated to protect the sensitive coastal areas from adverse development, have been conveniently ignored. I t is in an attempt to avoid these responsibi l ities that the project has been termed as j ust an " improvement" , a move which is rather a strange phrase for a road costing over Rs. 50 lakhslkm.

Only after I NT ACH ( I ndian National Trust for Art and Cultu ral Heritage) and others raised objections, and the Madras High Court stayed tree cutting ( in December 1992), d id the DHRW prepare an Environmental Appraisal Report (DHRW Report) to get clearance from the MEF. This report is reveal ing to a d iscerning reader: its dreams of "development" are alarming for those who know the coastal situation .

The planned highway is

supposed to connect Madras

with Kanyakumari, a distance of 737

km, passing close to the shoreline.

Tourism Issues in Public Donwin

"The improvement of the road along the East Coast will give a boost to agriculture, farming, plantation .. . etc., and usher in a future of well-being to the local village population and result in their upliftment and socia-economic development, education, health care, family welfare etc. The hitherto deprived and underprivileged people inhabiting this area and undergoing vicissitude of nature like annual cyclone ... will find succour and relief in their homes consequent to allround advancement and improvement in economic standards which is a direct outcome of the accessibility by improved road system." DHRW Report. Page 7.

This quote from the DHRW makes the ECR project seem extremely beneficial, even messianic, on its face. The planned highway is supposed to connect Madras with Kanyakumari, a distance of 737 km, passing close to the shoreline. The work on the first phase between Madras and Cuddalore has started on two 15

. km stretches as well as a number of culverts and bridges. In the latest development the Asian Development Bank has now decided to review all aspects of the project would also cover its "technical aspects." The ADB proposes to send officials to India for an assessment of the project.

The existing coastal road is a pothole-pitted partly single and partly double lane meandering along the coast and through nearly fifty villages. Its present carriageway of 3.5/5.5 metre width is lined with shade-giving banyans, tamarinds and neems, which often give way to the palms and beaches of the famed Coromandel Coast. Its proposed replacement, however, is a double lane highway with a uniform 10 metre wide carriageway on raised embankment, built on National Highway standards, which will destroy or seriously affect over a thousand homes, as well as schools, temples and tanks.

Clean earth, air and water are essential to support life, and the reason why we break environmental problems down into three primary categories - air pollution, water pollution, and loss of natural

. habitat. The ECR project seriously threatens all three, but first let us loOk at the water situation.

"The underground water is the main sou rce of potable water, not only to local villages, but even for supply of urban areas like Madras. The improvement of road will only improve the existing system of water transported by tankers." DHRW Report, P. 21.

2

East Coast Road

Such an unrealistic attitude regarding water could be fatal to the DHRW's dream of creating prosperity through development.

In recent years there has been a decline in the groundwater levels in towns and villages situated along the coastal road (drop in water level from 1986-1993: Pondicherry 150%, Mahabalipuram 50%, Cuddalore 325%) These are drought prone areas where little surplus water exists, and where river flow is only seasonal. Thus as per the DHRW report, the road would not only increase water requirements in the area as a result of industrialisation, but would also exploit a crucial resource in an already sensitive area, specially if the plan to ship it out to Madras is fully carried out.

The Chief Engineer, Ground Water, PWD, Madras, Mr. Ramanickam, has expressed the need for extreme caution as regards further development of groundwater resources along the coast. This has led the Centre to ban financing of any groundwater development within 1 Okm of the Tamil Nadu coastline.

When groundwater becomes saline, it not only loses its value as drinking water, but soon leads to the build up of salt at ground level, and the eventual loss of soil fertility. Awareness of this has led States to consider banning any deep borewells within six kilometers of the coastline. Yet, the water quality data available at the Central Ground Water Board, Madras, already indicates a sharp increase in the salinity level of groundwater in villages along the coast (increase in salinity from 1978-1986: Pondicherry 60%, Mahabalipuram 35%,

Cuddalore 46%). This reality seems to have escaped the DHRW, or is deliberately ignored by them, in that almost the entire coastal highway, all the way to Kanyakumari, falls within 6 km of the coastline.

A big highway which splits villages it passes through will adversely affect social and econo'ilic life. People will lose land, trees, village squares, temples and tanks, which form the centre of village interaction. The DHRW claims only 25 houses will be affected, but in reality the figure will be over a thousand (see box). Further, because the ECR planners are only interested in fast vehicular traffic, they have made no budgetary or design provisions for proper drainage or the creation of footpaths where the highway passes through built areas. The result is that houses next to the road are likely to get flooded as the road level, due to embankment,

3

These are drough t prone areas where little surplus water exists, and where river flow is only seasonal.

As in the case of other

environmentally controversial

projects, the ECR proponents also argue tha t they

should be allowed to go ahead and

complete the project in "public

interest"

Tourism Issues in Public Domain

will be h igher than pl inth levels. This has al ready been seen in Goonimedu where during th is (1993) monsoon a number of houses were flooded.

Field surveys carried out i n coastal vil lages have shown that the majority of the people are seriously concerned about the negative i mpacts of a major h ighway and the ensu ing developments, namely the sal ination of their g roundwater and soil, pol lution, noise and the inevitable increase in traffic accidents. Also, they real ise that a major h ighway is not guaranteed to bri ng d i rect benefits to the local population . Apart from some mechanical workshop and tea-shop owners, the sort of major developments envisaged are on ly l i kely to benefit outside industrial ists and entrepreneurs. As confirmation they point to the fact that many new industries i n thei r area hardly e mploy any locals, and even the EGR itself i s being built mostly without the e mployment of local labour.

Recently I NTAGH made a thorough analysis of the cost-benefit figures, which form the basis for ADB loan sanction, as presented in the DHRW's Techno Econo mic Feasibi l ity Study in 1988. The latter report is bui l t almost entirely on unrealistic assumptions about benefits, together with den ial of the real costs of the project. If one takes into account the cost overrun from Rs. 560 to 945 mi l l ions that has already taken place, assu mes real istic maintenance costs, and prunes overstated benefits, the resu lt ing internal rate of return ( I RR) fal ls from a 25 per cent to six per cent. The latter f igure fai ls to meet even the interest burden on the loan .

This drastic reduction in IRR sti l l does not include social and envi ronmental costs, the cost of accidents and delay, and the cost in terms of property damage and destruction . If al l these were to be taken into account as per ABO's own Operational Manual . " . . . envi ronmental i mpacts m ust be incorporated into the valuation of the benefits and cost i n the econo mic analysis of projects," (ADB) Env i ronment Paper No.1 0, P 5), the EGR p roject would have never been sanctioned .

As in the case of other environmental ly controversial projects, the EGR proponents also argue that they should be al lowed to go ahead and complete the project in "publ ic in teresf' as p lanned, because Rs. 24 crores have already been spent:

4

East Coast Road

''There is no reason to halt the progress of ECR project commenced i n Apri l 1991 and proposed to be completed i n four years . . . 15% of work having been completed so far and as much as Rs. 24 Crores having been pumped i nto the project ti l l now . . . " (Page 21 , DHRW Counter-affidavit) .

Th is is a ridiculous argument. Having inappropriately spent Rs. 24 crores is to reason why the rest should be spent in the same man ner.

Meanwhile, it must be pointed out that even after 2% years (since the work began) barely 4 per cent ofthe road stretch is approaching completion (km 120-126) and on ly another 16% of the work is in various stages of incompleteness. I t is to be emphasised here that environmental objections have played no role in the delay. When INTACH first approached the Tamil Nadu G overnment i n September 1992 nearly 40 km of the first phase - of which 28 km are now cleared by MEF - had al ready been cleared of trees, and work was i n progress.

Another important point arises concerning the qual ity of execution: In the section nearing completion al ready serious potholes and cracks have developed (e.g . around km 125) because of substandard material and work. Owing to fau l ty design water is getting trapped i n the sub-base, and the embankments show signs of heavy erosion . Some experts feel that the road may even have to be redesigned and rebu ilt in stretches. This and the provision of proper drainage and pedestrian faci l i ties in the vi l lages - till now neither planned nor budgeted , but desperately needed - is bound to push the costs up. The original cost estimate of Rs. 53 crores already stands corrected at Rs. 85 crores, and the road is nowhere complete. Completion cost, looking at the way th ings are developing, is not l ikely to be less than Rs. 120 crores.

Considering the above it may be prudent to scale down the project from National Highway to "District Road" Standard in stretches where work has not yet begun. Th is can be ach ieved without acquiring additional land (one of the causes for delay) and major socio-environmental impacts.

A highway along the coast between Madras and Cuddalore is no longer necessary, now that the Madras-Vil lupuram highway {NH

5

Completion cost, looking at the way things are developing, is not likely to be less than Rs.120 crores.

In spite of well documented

objections and constructive

alternatives, the official reactio n has been one of

myopic denial of any serious long

term impacts.


45). which runs within 30 km from the coast, is being converted to a four lane super highway. INTACH 'has suggested - specially with future tourism potential in mind (see box) - to marginally widen and resurface the existing coastal road to serve local needs. If required an alternate route for a state highway (see map), south of Villupuram and 10-40 km inland, should also be explored as it would serve a larger section of the population being accessible from both sides, and would not face the onslaught of cyclones and coastal weather.

As far as local development is concerned, and the prosperity of the coastal inhabitants, a smaller improved road will do the job quite satisfactorily. It is also in keeping with present trends, wherein sustainable development options, based on local human and natural resources, are preferred over dependence on top-down extraneous development where outsiders exploit local resources for quick monetary gains. All this points to the need for a Regional Plan for the sustainable development of the coastal area before infrastructure decisions are taken. It is a matter of concern that the Govemment of Tamil Nadu has so far chosen to regard those opposing the ECR project as "adversaries", seeing them as people trying to stop "developmenf' instead of as people concerned about appropriate development. In spite of well documented objections and constructive alternatives, the official reaction has been one of myopic denial of any serious long term impacts.

The central issue around ECR is one of development: what kind of development, and for whom. People and NGOs (the East Coast Road Action Committee today consists of representative:; from

more than a dozen organizations working in the coastal 3rea) opposing the ECR are demanding a sustainable development programme for the coastal belt. They would like to work towards this objective with the Government, and are looking for a participato!'! partnership, not confrontation. The only condition is that the al,!thorities do not insist on building the ECR as presently planned at any cost. Surely it is in the interest of the Tamil Nadu Gover'lnwnt to harness the capacities, experience and commitment of these NGOs, and the interested coastal inhabitants, to try to achieve what everyone is talking about, especially after the Rio Summit, which endorsed the concept of sustainable development. It would be a piiy if this opportunity is not utilized to try out a true and sincere partnership between people and the Government. The ADB's decision to assess the project will add to the already existing difficulties they face incompleting the project.

6

East Coast Road

Property destnlctioll

"No disturbance is being done to villages, towns, or habitation. Major villages of Mahabalipuram and Marakkanam are being bypassed. Only 25 houses are proposed for acquisition in the entire road by giving adequate compensation." DHRW Report, P.80.

While 25 is a nice number, it is also a blatant falsehood. A recent survey of 14 villages south of Marakkanam has revealed that nearly 380 houses are to be destroyed and a large area of agricultural land converted to roadway. The DHRW had been acquiring land under emergency provision even though the construction started 21-11 years ago.

MEF guidelines, in fact, require two years notification. The DHAWs use of emergency provision is now being challenged in the courts and is likely to add serious delays plus increased cost - to any further construction. To top this, the ADS loan agreement requires that all the land acquisition be completed before the contract is awarded (Loan Agreement Schedule 6, para 5).

For the patta property holders who get compensation for their land, resettlement will be costly and a real headache. Hasim Badshah of Pudupattinam, for example, was threatened by government officials that his house will be demolished without compensation if he protested. He is also not optimistic about employment opportunities due to EGR, as he has seen that the nearby Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant employs only eight villagers.

Meanwhile, the road alignment has been changed to avoid land/property belonging to the influential and wealthy - as in Pudupattinam, where the EGR takes a circuitous route, even though it means 2 km extra; and in Vilambur, where it goes at a slant instead of straight, destroying more th an 10 houses belonging to the poor, but leaving th e property of the wealthy and influential intact. For the non-patta landholders, however, though they h ave been squatting for several decades, the loss is truly a disaster: they will not get any compensation. Over 1,000 non-patta h ouseholds will h ave to move. Yet the DHRW h as no resettlement plan.

Current Status

In a latest development the Asian Development Bank has decided to review the whole EGR project including environmental issues. The project has already been strongly opposed by NGOs on the ground th at it will endanger the ecosystem of the coastline.

In June 1993 the Tamil Nadu Government filed a counter-affidavit in the Madras High Court to get the stay on tree cutting lifted. After several hearings the High Court issued an interim order in October asking th e State Government to comply with the recommendations of the EAC, appointed by the MEF, which allows work on ECR to be continued on only 28 km of the 168 km between Madras and Cuddalore.

In the EAC's opinion a h ighway in the coastal area is inappropriate. Only where construction has progressed considerably would it be appropriate to complete started sections, a damage control measure in order not to endanger traffic safety.

7


TOUriSlll potential

The tourism potential of coastal Tamil Nadu, the famed "Coromandel Coast", remains as yet largely untapped, its long stretches of unpolluted beaches, its magnificent World Heritage Site of Mahabalipuram, its Nature Conservancy areas such as Point Calimere, Kaliveli Tank and the Gulf of Munnar Biosphere, its unspoiled villages, backwaters and sacred groves, and its places of special interest like Pondicherry, Tarangambadi and Chidambaram all combine to give it enormous potential for tourism.

However, this potential could be seriously spoiled by laying a highway through the area, leading to heavy traffic (10,000 trucks/day) and pollution due to industrial/urban growth, all of which will inevitably degrade those qualities that are most attractive for tourists. Tourism and industry simply do not mix. What tourists, especially foreigners, want is beauty, peace and qUiet, unspoiled natural scenery, and a rich mixture of cultural interests. For this they will pay, and pay handsomely, bringing in foreign currency to benefit the national economy.

The tourist industry, if managed in an ecologically sound manner, could be the ideaJ "industry" for a sensitive unspoiled region such as the Coast of Tamil Nadu. A "scenic route" is what tourists enjoy, not a dangerous Highway full of roaring trucks, racing buses and deadly accidents, with factories and similar commercial enterprises set along the way.

The next decade will see the development of eco-tourism, and we in India, blissfully ignorant of latest trends in the West in our rush to ape the Westem model of development (with 20 years time lag), are all set to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Has the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department, for example, ever thought of providing mountain bikes on hire so that people could cycle down all the way to Kanyakumari, enjoying the quiet and unspoiled pristine beauty of the coastal landscape? This kind of tourism has a definite future. the question is, do we want a share in it?

This article has been reproduced from The Hindu, 1611/94

8

Issues 0'£ Land use Conflict and the pleasure periphery in Golf Tourism

NinaRao

Today there is a sudden interest in reporting on the controversy regarding the construction of Golf cou rses, in the Indjan Press. Perhaps the focus on golf is di rectly related to the search for a

solution to the problems India faces with regard to its tou rism pol icy. 1 I n 1992 India received 1 .83 mil l ion tourists but sent out 2 .6 mill ion tou rists . To reverse this trend, we have started to consider the option of golf tourism, in line with the pol icy in itiatives of other Asian destinations , which have achieved a take off point in InYir� ational tou rist arrivals. The Department of Tou rism brochu re "G"dn in I ndia " says "that Golf here wil l enable you to experience the cou ntry in its own unique manner"; Yet these develop ments are not taking place for the sake of the sport or the local people but to attract the tourist golfer and international golf competitions.2

Tou r operators and travel agents are going all out to promote I ndia as a golfing destination. The Department of Tourism h as also sensed that Golf tourism in our mild climate can bring i n the money. Wolfgang Pinder of Pinder Reisen , a German Tou r operator, estimates that there are 42 mil l ion Golfers around the world who travel abroad on an average about 3 times a year for golf holidays. Golfers are upper income travelers who spend $ 200 a day for a hol iday l asting a week. A trial run of a group of 100 golfers wil l be brought in by Travel House which has made an arran ge ment with the Delhi Golf club to charge a green fee of $ 35 and the Calcutta Golf clu b for a green fee of $ 3 for a rou nd of golf.

Phuket in comparison, charges $ 100 G reen fee per round . In Japan four hours of golf costs $ 300. However, there are problems in pro moting Ind ia as a Golf destination over its Asian neighbors. Air fares to India are 25 % higher. Hotels in India are co mparatively

Nina Rao teaches tourism s tudies at the Col/ege of Vocational Studies, Delhi University. This paper was presented at the World Leisure and Recreation Association (WLRA) World Congress, at Jaipur, December 1993.

9

Yet these developments are not taking place for the sake of the sport or the local people but to attract the tourist golfer and i"ternational golf competitions.

India is a third world country

whose people "see themselves in the exploited periphery of the

power centers of the global process of

moderni:mtion "


more expensive and I ndian cities do not have cuisine to suit international golfers.

The development of golf tourism raises two interesting theoretical issues. The first relates to the nature of international tourist flows and the dependency that they create in th i rd world cou ntries. The second raises the issues of confl ict in the process of tourism develop ment which helps us to locate resistance to change i n the context of any developmental pol icy. Th is shows us the extent to which power and confl ict are inter-related .

The fi rst methodological task is to place Tourism in I ndia in the global context. India is a thi rd world country whose people "see themselves i n the exploited periphery of the power centers of the global process of modernization

,,3 and the development of golf courses as" an expression of the consumerist desires and opportunities of those who are economically and pol i tically powerful but spiritually poor." 4

Secondly, we have to understand the spread of mass tourism around the world to such an extent that today we can observe a 'pioneer front' which is constantly moving away from the h igh ly industrialized metropolitan lones to open up , at a rapid rate, the farthest and least developed peripheries .s The push to the pioneer front comes from the desire of metropol itan tourists to seek the climatical ly favourable "mediterranean seas" , a concept that covers the Caribbean and Asian waters.

In order to better understand the spread of modern tou rism to desti nations where it is a new industry, the spatial expansion model developed by E. Gormsen provides us with a historical context as wel l as a methodological too l .

Using the sea-side hol iday as a focal p.oint Gormsen points .out that sight-seeing and cultural tours are n.ot of much i mportance today. He therefore suggests that the first periphery of I nternational tou rism extended from the coast of England (the pi.oneer of the sea-side holiJ:lay) to the opposite European coast and then to the Baltic. The t.ourists were the aristocracy whose nationality did n.ot matter s ince they were al l in terrelated.

They traveled by coach and by boat f.or several days to reach thei r coastal vi l las. By the mid-19 Century, with the increase in

10

Golf Tourism

industrialisation and a growing middle class, the first periphery was pushed further and the bourgeois now joined the el ite on a journey of a day or two to the palace hotels along the promenades. It was time to extend the first periphery by pushing coastal resorts to the south coast of Europe, including the Riviera, Cote d'azur, Biarritz, Corfu, San Sebastian and Yalta. The second periphery served as winter health resorts as wel l as summer residences of the el ite. As tourist traffic increased and new technology reduced travel time to 24 hours, any destination along the peripheries was not within reach.

After World War I motorised transport and air transport supplemented the rai lways and with the youth movement new ways of traveling e merged to change the elite-bourgeois mix. After Worl d War II, with the boo m in international holidays the frontier was pushed further out, because Europe was now crowding out the tourist as wages and holidays continued to increase, and the infrastructure developed apace. Portugal, Romania and Bulgaria were now on the map, along with the North African coast. The third periphery now extended to the Balearic and Canary Is lands. With the introduction of charter flights the frontiers of the third periphery were ready to extend.

However, tourism develop ment in the third periphery was different. Its push came from a greater share of cultural attractions which increased the degree of 'strangerhood'.6 Now Europeans with lower incoliles were given an opportunity to sample the delights of intemational tourism on a budget. This was the push factor for the fourth periphery, where along with cu ltural attractions l ike monuments and ruins, different objectives played a part in the development of tourism, including the different forms of nature and wild l ife in Asia and Africa, primitive tribes in Latin America and South-East Asia as wel l as attractive coastl ines. The attraction of the fourth periphery lay in the fact that it provided luxury at low cost and had a 12 month season.

The fourth periphery however showed a two way dependency: socio- economic and socio-cu ltu ral, since there was very little regional or iocal participation, which Schormann describes as "the participation of the population in the independent develop ment process". with regard to tourist traffic and the profit gained from it? As a general law of develop ment therefore, the double dependency

11

The attraction of the fourth periphery lay in the fact that it provided luxury at low crist and had a 12 month season.

Since most of the courses date back

to the 19th century they are

considered architecturally

and professionally unsound.

Tourism Issues in Public DOl1win

of tou rism development in the fourth periphery indicated that where the economy was less developed the development of tourism was related to the general state of develop ment of the destination and had an i mpact on its social structure . The more modest the level of develop ment, the g reater the dependency and also the impact of tou rism. The issue of Tourism development thus assumed neo-colonial form seeking to exploit the resources of the destination for the benefit of the metropolises. The exploitative impact would only be reduced i f greater differentiation occurred in the socio-economic system leading to h igher domestic consumption or a change in the attitude towards tourism. through resistance to a pol icy that was extemally control led or excluded local interests . Gonnsen's model does not see a role for resistance not only to the push of the "pioneer front" but also to the values on which tourism's peripheries have been created. For Golf tourism however. as the fou rth periphery seeks more and more room there is already a world wide network in which not only is the commercial golf movement bei ng resisted but alternatives to the center-periphery model have also been propagated and critiqued.s

Just as the British i ntroduced the seaside resort. they also introduced golf in India in the late 19th Century. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club was establ ished in 1884. The Bangalore Golf Club was establ ished in 1886 with Winston Church i l l as a regular visitor. The worlds oldest inter club championsh ip (Madras GC vs Bangalore GC) pegan in 1888 and conti nues to be held unti l the present. Strongly el itist, these clubs continue to cater to the upper crust and do not wish to expand their membership ( in the region of 2000+). Some clubs. l i ke the Delh i Golf Club have a waiting l ist for a 100 years. I n 1986 some enthusiasts in Bangalore acqui red 136 acres in Chel lagatha tank on long lease and invi ted an Australian special ist. Thomson Wolve ridge and Associates, to design the course which in 1989 became an 18 hole course . A new trend had been establ ished i n I ndian Golf. Today. on the Haryana section of National Highway NO. 8 a n umber of new resorts have come up i n response t o a model industrial township of the Indo-Japanese Business Council and the International Software I ndustrial Park of Singapore. Al l these resorts provide Golf Courses at high ly reasonable tariffs. Today. you would find that traditional'Dhabhas' have g iven way to 3 and 5 Star hotels to cater to the recreational needs of foreign tourists and mult inational executives. Two hundred and twenty acres of land have been acqui red by Uppals who are

12

Golf Tourism

awaitin g Mr. John N icklaus to joi n as a consultant to develop an i nternational Golf cou rse, a 5 star hotel and a helipad.

With the advent of cable T.V. networks l i ke STAR the natu re of

the game has also changed , as the camera takes you from Hawaii

to the Canadian Rockies. from Indonesia, Thai land , Australia and

Japan to China and now India. Indian Golf has been

internationaUsed. The resort structure of these l inks with club houses, bars and restau rants and even hotels often h ides the face that tou rism has displaced some traditional occupation and land use

as io the case of the plantation course at Kapalau in Hawaii . •

Tou rism developers are now taking a second look at India's colon ial inheri tance. Since most of the courses date back to the 1 9th centu ry they are considered arch itecturally and p rofessionally unsound. The Department of Tou rism has set up a

committee of Tou r operators and Golfers to suggest ways of

upgrading 1 5 golf courses to Intemational levels. With a budget of Rs. 5 Crores, this co mmittee is lookin g at courses in Agra, Jaipur, Hyderabad. The Ministry has set a cei l ing of Rs. 50 lakhs per cou rse but just the Hyderabad cou rse would requ ire Rs. 2.5 Crores. Unless such investments are made the existing cou rses are considered unsu itable for international golf meets. Now that

I n dian golf is opening up to inte mational participation , according' to Ranjit Nanda, representin g Hawtree and Son in India, for the 110 ha. Golders G reen Golf and Country Club near Delh i in the Araval l i ranges, the overhaul ing and remodeling of these cou rses has become a necessity. In h is opin ion the drawback of these cou rse sterns from their outlay. Bui lt on avai lable flat stretches,

they divide into drives, with a teein g off mou nd at one end and a putting green at the other, with a tree lined fairway. Such a design

is considered amateu rish by intemational standards because it

does not have any features or obstacles to add challenge to the

game.9

The intemationalisation of golf is goi ng to change many features

of the game. As of today, golf is primari ly an amate u r sport. The

professional is the caddie who spend� long hours of the week from

a you ng age on the l inks. India's national cha mpion , Ali Sher, is an ex-caddie of the DGC and an e mployee of DCM , one of the busi ness houses that sponsors the game in India. As a caddie he would have eamed less than a dollar for a fu ll round but today he has picked up

13

"Golf is a game of the rich and they get the land they want".

In India new Golf

developments include the

Nandi Hills project 60 Kms.

from Bangalore, set up by an

NRI in partnership with Jack Nicklaus Jr.


$33,320 in the nationals, and in the Wills Open sponsored by lTC, prize money totaling $200,000. 20 tournaments make up the Indian golf circuit with a prize purse of one crore rupees. Professionals are also being picked up by business houses in much the same way as cricket and tennis stars. Once international players come into the fray the few Indian professionals will find it hard t61ive off the game. Golfers interviewed by me at clubs were not anxious to see tourists playing golf on their links but were quite prepared for the internationalisation of the game they followed regularly on Star T.v. The caddies also followed the game on the cable networks but many saw no future for themselves once the international players came on the scene.

Iqbal Malik and Vincent Van Ross give us a conflicting viewpoint."Golf is a game of the rich and they get the land they want". As a game, golf in India is not of much public interest, thus its promotion deprives people of natural greens, which in contrast to golf greens are not made of imported turf but are a mix uncut grass, scrub and trees. Natural greens and wooded stretches attract golf developers because they are easily developed into courses and at a lower cost. Green belts act as air filters in addition to supporting local wildlife, but Golf courses affect fauna due to regular mowing which destroys insects and breaks the local food chain. They also have to be artificially tended and require large amounts of fertilizer, water and pesticides.

Most new golf development is commercial and a lot of investment is put into the fairways and putting greens but very little into the upkeep of the wooded roughs and peripheral areas. Also, golf greens are not open to anyone who wishes to enjoy their biodiversity even if they do not play the game.10

The Ministry of Tourism is however pursuing the golf option very actively despite opposition from environmentalists and tourism activists and even the travel trade. A tour of Japanese golf course owners and managers brought by EMPL tours, were of the opinion that no one will come to India just to play Golf. At the most ']olf can be an incentive to extend a cultural tour of India. Both (he Japanese

and Pinder have approved only of Delhi and Bombay courses but they maintain that equipment is insufficient and not of international quality; even the Indian travel trade is wary of extensively promoting Golf tours in India.

14

Golf Tourism

The case of resistance to golf is perhaps most interesting and also most militant in Goa, where a holiday village is being planned with funds from the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.11 Under the new liberalisation policy, the tourism ministry has invited Australian consultants representing 12 companies to negotiate with 10 Indian hotels to set up golf courses and manufacture golf equipment. India it seems, wishes to catch up with Thailand (160 courses), Malaysia (153 courses), Indonesia (90 courses) and now China which has planned 400 courses in the next 15 years.12

In India new Golf developments include the Nandi Hills project 60 Kms. from Bangalore, set up by an NRI in partnership with Jack Nicklaus Jr. A partnership between Pinder of Germany and ITC hotels is in the pipeline and a total of 6 projects have been planned in Goa of which two have already been cleared at Vema and Betul. In both cases the local Panchayats and Sarpanches have not been consulted. The policy of the government is to ask for proposals from private parties and then acquire land from village collectives. In Bangalore the Nandi Hills project is a $ 22 million, 250 acre World class resort designed to encourage International Tourism in South Asia. The extravagant 18 hole complex has displaced a traditional farming community which apart from rice, millet, ragi and other crops had used the area for grazing as well. The land been leased from the Government but had been illegally acquired by Khoday� who have influence with all political big wigs in Kamataka. Khodays have now sold this land to Chawla, the developer, and have displaced the traditional community of farmers along with dairying co-operatives which were the dominant economic'activityY Verna (158 acres) is being developed by Alcon Resort Holdings in collaboration with GOLF Plan U.S.A. and Betul (247 acres) is being developed by the Leela Kempinski group. Four other projects include 121 acres in Amthane, Morjim, Mandrem and Arambol. The govemment has not surveyed either for environmental impacts or for local public opinion, because their attitude is to unquestioningly accept the guidance of consultants.

In view of the fact that Britain has already crossed the 2000 mark in courses and Japan is nearing this figure with its 17 million golfers often having to wait a month to have a game, countries in Asia are now being looked at not only because poor peasants have land to offer, but also to bring down the costs of the game which have

15

The case of resistance to golf is perhaps most interesting and almost militant in Goa.

Activists led by several

organisations representing

community interests


become astrono mical in Japan and Eu rope. Experience shows that when land use changes are anticipated it is the rich farmer or the one with ferti le lan d , l ike fruit plantations, who benefit from new develop ments. Many poor peasants who do not have legal rights to the land are tricked into leaving the land. As a Florida based golf planner, Michael C. Grant told the Goa admin istration "golf tourism is a new trend on the tou rism ci rcu it and if Goa does not fall in l ine, it would lose a large segment of foreign tou rists. 14 Such an attitude explains why resistance by vi l lagers led to an attack on the Barreto family by Col. Nair of the Leela Ke mpinski group.

Activists led by several organisations representing community interests , like J.G.F, Balancho Manch , Balancho Ekvott, Quepem Coastal Vil lages Peoples Welfare Action Committee and Save Mobor Committee have co mbined to stall development of the golf course envisaged on a plateau overlooking the Arabina Sea. MLA Ramakant Khalap is afraid that vi llagers will lose control of thei r traditional economy and golf courses will provide another entry point for sex touris m. Th is year's Carnival recorded the first tourist related atrocities agai nst women and if women are employed as caddies, as they are in Thailand, then such apprehensions are not unfounded. The state Tourism Mi nister, R. Carmo Pegado however hopes to welco me 300 charters to Goa in the coming season and justifies the governments policy. "If we want to cash in on this traffic we have to provide the facilities."15 Golf is an elitist game and therefore style rules every aspect of it. Membership costs th ousands of rupees, even for children. Golfers also love to exhibit their equipment, which is now a bi l l ion dol lar business for manufactu rers. India has been making golf equipment for years but golfers prefer international brands which even at second hand cost a large su m. Apart from golf cl ubs you have a golf bag, trolley, golf buggies, specially moulded shoes with metal spiked soles, suede gloves, sun visors and designer clothes. These are avenues for multinational consu mer goods man ufactu rers to displace local in dustry.

V.A.P. Mahajan , a former tou rism di rector, now with the Leela group clai ms that the Betu l site has no inhabitants and no productive activity. The 16 crore investment in the golf course will create 800 jobs. However, in human terms the impacts of such a project are long term. Employment will be related to the nu mber of users, over which th e destination has no control. If the cou rse is mechanised then the n u mber of employe� will decrease. Secondly villagers

16

Golf Tourism

who alienate their lands wil l become lab.,urers if they do not find employment at the course and will migrate to the cities to live in slums; a d rastic change from their self- rel iant and independent communities.

It is no surprise to find that the biggest sponsors of the game are the multinationals . If you look at a golf magazine you wi ll find that toumaments are sponsored by cigarette and alcohol companies. The latter are not al lowed to advertise in the media in I ndia so they use the sponsorship of sports to promote their products as wel l as a l i festyle. Daleep Rao of ITC says sponsorship "has a pre-emptive value" . The Wil ls Open sponsored by h is company was covered by Star T.V. Says Rao, "the gain is on a psychological level . . . the corporate image gets enhanced. Financiers, bankers and people think the company is sound ."

However prize money in I ndia does not compare with the U.S. Open and U.S. Masters which is $ 1.5 mil l ion and $ 2 million or Japan's Dunlop at $ 800,000 and Asian Masters at $400,000. The role of organised crime and mil itary dictatorships in support of golf have also added to the retai l value of land for courses and speculation in memberships .16

In a country like I ndia where the average income is under $300 the cost of membership is about $1,300. Imported equipment also costs $1,650. Other expenses include travel l ing, equ ipment maintenance and practice sessions . It is evident that golf is the game of a small el ite and they network with the powers that be to encourage and promote the game.

The question that needs to be answered is why foreign investors are looking seriously at I ndia as a base for the promoting of golf. I n Europe, America, Japan and Hawaii there is today effective resistance to the promoting of new golf courses both at the local level as well as at the network level . Groups l ike Tourism Concem , Ten , Ramblers , GAG'M , Antenna, ECTWT are now consol idating an intemational network the first activity of which was to observe April 29 1993 (Japan's Environment Day) as Anti-Golf day.16

As tourists press the pioneer frontiers out toWards agricultu ral and tribal communities a double displacement takes place in the third world conceming power and conflict18. As MacCannel says the

17

It is no surprise to find that the . biggest sponsors of the game are the multinationals.

The Anti-GoIf movement is

therefore to be assessed as an

overt public debate over some

actual or proposed

development which attempts

to change traditional

patterns of land use.


basis for this displacement lies in the assumption of cultural homogeneity, a unifying logic, a parallel intention and motivation and an inter-subjective agreement in any two social formations, as the ideological content of capital moves out to the fourth pe�iphery.

The Anti-Golf movement is therefore to be assessed as an overt public debate over some actual or proposed development which attempts to change traditional patterns of land use affecting both current land users and the surrounding communities through externalities. Roehl and Fesenmaier in a study of land use conflict in the United States have used a locational conflict model that will be useful in assessing issues in tourism development, particularly in events in which more than one group has a legitimate claim over decisions that are considered to be the preserve of policy makers. Such claims can undermine efficiency criteria as well as market mechanisms. Secondly the model has practical applicability which will help in identifying the cause of the conflict as well as in the context in which it occurs.19

A study of the press coverage of the Anti-Golf movement and the promoting of golf courses suggests the following issues and actors:

1. The Government (central and state) is more frequently a supporter of land use change because it has a national constituency. Multinational and national business houses also lobby for land use changes in their business interests.

2. Municipalities, Panchayats and local bodies are more active in supporting status quo because they have local constituencies.

3. Local citizens are both for and against changes and this is an indication that locals are not only aware but also involved in the benefits and dis benefits of development.

4. Both supporters and opponents of change use economic and environmental arguments, the former stressing the economic benefits and the latter using environmental damage.

5. Conflicts over tourism development pit developers against local people and in this process an interrelationship emerges between the issue, the actor and the argument. It is this interrelationship that explains the tendency amongst groups to align into coalitions to tackle issues.

1 8

Golf Tourism

6. Conflicts are related primari ly to intensive tou rism development . The conflict model helps policy makers to identify developments that are going to cause major confl icts and those which may be resisted but will eventual ly become a part of day-ta-day l ife . Th is model also helps actors in the conflict to identify those issues which will be successfully blocked if support g roups and i ndividuals can be made to see how a particu lar issue seeks to change their control over their l ives. It ca,1 be an empowerment model.

In conclusion we can say that al ternative and sustainable tourism developments have also fai led to take off because they have not been able to see the conflict s ituation that emerges in al l land use issues and the promotion of golf tour ism is therefore one such conflict , which is the product of an affluent SOCiety with a high level of consumerism seeking to locate its consumption in a society which is on a different leve l . When we look at GolfTou rism i t appe�rs more than any other human activity as a good example of conspicuous consumption . I t also is a paradoxical case of a leisure activity dependent on and influenced by the environment and yet by creating an artificial environment it seeks to control the physical environment which resu lts in negative consequences on unspoilt

19

When we look at Golf Tourism it appears more than any other human activity as a good example of conspicuous consumption.

The bane of cultural pollution

C. K. Meena

A five-star hotel in Bangalore had planned a "gypsy evening" for corporate bigwigs. In the envelopes containing the invitation cards were silver earrings- for the men . Their

wives, who presumably needed no such inducements, were merely asked to attend the mela, looking appropriately "gypsy" . (This was easy, anything vaguely Rajasthan would do).

The gypsy evening did not see its fair share of untamed executives; stuffed shirts and earrings do not go together. It was easier for the women to play the role, for mirrorwork Jehngas are always in fashion .

The fairground was a "farm" (as in "farmhouse" , not paddy field) on the outskirts of Bangalore. The distinct lack of "gypsiness" in the evening feast was compensated for by the entertainment - a professional troupe doing Spanish gypsy dances. An i mportant sidelight was the acrobatics. The performers were not gypsies, but what the hell-they were genuine vil lagers.

I t was fortunate that members of Karnataka's Lambani community did not come to know about the gypsy evening, for they might have felt affronted. It is not hard to imagine them expressing their outrage over "this distortion of ou r culture," in the same manner that social and political groups in Kerala are protesting against the Gajamela, the annual tou rist show staged by the State Government.

The Gajamela, also known as the Great Elephant March , was first held in 1990 with a parade of 50 decked-up elephants for the benefit of just as many foreigners, in the Thekkinkadu Maidan , the ven ue of the traditional Thrissoor Pooram . The event, which was considered a travesty of the renowned Pooram , created a ruckus with in the State. Undaunted, the government repeated its performance the fol lowing year, this time with 101 elephants.

22

The Gajamela, also known as the Great Elephant March, was first held in 1990 witlt a parade cf 50 decked-up elepha nts for the benefit of jw;t as manyforeigners

"Culture is not a hamburger to be

paclrtd in a day

saftiri" said the legend on the T-shirt of an

actiVist at Thrissoor last

January.


The Keraliya Yuvajana Vedi and the BJP thundered against what they termed "the bogus Poo ram" . The govern ment's only conces

sion was to shift the venue from the Pooram maidan to the Th rissoor

municipal stadium from 1 992 onwards. I t then embel l ished the event

by i ncluding a snakeboat race at Alappuzha (the venue of the

traditional boat festival - Vall amakal i ) , as wel l as a second elephant

parade in the State capital , Th i ruvananthapu ram.

Unl i ke the gypsy evening, which was a fancy dress ball of sorts , the Gajamela purports to represent Kerala's cultu re, and not very

convincingly, at that. The Thrissoor Pooram takes place in the first to second week of Apri l , whi le the Val lamakal i , performed in the

month of Uttharattadhi , is in August-September. The Gajamela,

which is held in January (clearly for the conven ience of foreigners who are not heat-resistant), draws on elements from both events .

Imitation , i n th is case, is not considered as flattery but mockery.

"Cultu re is not a h ambu rger to be packed in a day safari" said the legend on the T-shirt of an activist at Th rissoor last January. He was a member of of the Keka Natu re Preservation SOCiety, wh ich , along with the Janakiya Prathi karana Sangham and the Navu Samskarika Suddheekarana Ved i , decried the Gaja mela. Th ey condemned the "masala formula" that was sol d to foreigners in the

name of Kerala culture.

The voices of the cha mpions of culture are getti ng sh ri l ler by the day. Indian culture is getting corrupted , they say, pointing an

accusing finger at westernisation , modernisation , satel l ite televi

sion , tou rism, you-name-it.

Down with plastic, concrete and the bu rge r coke brigade. Up with clay and wood, natural f ibre and natu ral food. Lon g l ive ayurveda.

Save the handloom weavers and the leather puppeteers. I t's s in to

civil ise the "tribals' . We must protect our vil lagers, our folk traditions,

ou r children, from evi l modem in'fluences.

It is a l ine of thi n king that te mpts many of us, whether for aesthetic

or poli tical reasons . It is hard not to sympathise with the Goans who

-are up i n a rms over the "debasement" of their Carnival . I t is hard

not to oppose a tourism project that wou ld mar the pictu re-postcard splendour of a verdant forest or a serene beach . Yet, it is easy to

yield to atavistic yearnings for the authentic and the pure.

23

The Great Elephant March

Are staged tourist attractions l ike the Gajamela really a distortion of indigenous rituals? Or, as the word "staged" suggests, can we look at them as works of theatre?

Richard Schechner (Performative Circumstances from the Avant Garde to Ramli la, 1 974) sounds even more relevant today, in ou r context: "The transformation of ritual into theater is occurring al l over the world . Tourism has been a major factor of this change."

One of the harrowing examples he gives is the people of Asaro, a vi l lage in the Papua New Guinea, of a dance they performed only when they felt th reatened by attack from another tribe. Before dawn , the men would go to a local creek, rub thei r bodies with white mud (the colou r of death) and make g rostesque masks of wood frames covered by mud and vegetation .

Emerging from the creek at dawn , possessed by spi rits of the dead , the dancers wou ld move. in eerie , slow, crouching steps. Sometimes they would go to the vil lage of their enemies and frighten them , thus preventi ng attack; sometimes they would dance in their own vi l lage. The dance took 1 0 minutes whi le the preparations took most of the previous night.

In the mid-sixties , a photographer from National Geographic paid the vi l lagers to stage the dance for him. These pictures became world famous and it was not long before tourists demanded to see those whom they themselves christened as 'the Mudmen" .

When Schechner went there in 1 972 , the ritual had tu rned to theatre. The whole performance was dislocated . Tourists were paying $20 to go to Asaro in minibuses; the Asaroans got a 1 0 per cent cut. The dances were p�rformed at midday, in the centre of the vi l lage , and not by the stream, secretly at dawn . The performance was twice weekly, instead of only when required. Since according to westem 'standards a performance should be longer than 1 0 minutes, the dancing was augmented by a display of bow-and-arrow marksmanship, a photo session and a "market" .

The social fabric- of the people of Asaro had been torn to sh reds and the changes in the dance were evidence of the deep disruptions of Highland Ii·fe. · Even the exploitative fee paid to the vil lagers was desp�rately needed during a period when the barter economy had fal len apart .

24

Are staged tourist attractions like the Gajamela really a distortion of indigenous rituals ? Or, as the word "staged" suggest.s, can we

look at them as works of theatre?

Tears at a price. Poverty can turn

a ritual into a ticketed show.


Economic change is usually a harbinger of social upheaval , and distressing as it seems, it is an unstoppable process. A tourist visiting a Lambani settlement wou ld be treated not only to impromptu songs and dances, but to a performance of their ritual istic weeping (tears mark their every occasion , be it a birth , death , marriage, meeting or parting) . this would be fol lowed by a l itany of complaints against the government's apathy towards their distress, and an appeal for a donation .

Tears at a price . Poverty can tu rn a ritual into a ticketed show. Schechner points out that whether one calls a perfonnance ritual or theatre depends on the degree to which it tends towards efficacy or entertainment.

Is noth ing sacred? The answer seems to be no. When rituals themselves have changed imperceptibly since their inceptiop. (no one performance of a ritual is exactly l ike the previous one1.joU cannot blame its practitioners for l ifting them into other conte�is .

Changes in conventions occur because of opportunism, audience pressures, professional ism, and new technology, says Schechner. Locals respond to the demands of rich visitors, or local audiences demand changes because they've absorbed the taste of alien cultu res.

From one point of view these changes are corruptions ; a clamour is raised to establ ish cu ltu ral zoos in which the Original versions of age-old rituals can be preserved. But even traditional performances vary g reatly from generation to generation ; an oral tradition is flexible, able to absorb many personal variations with in set parameters.

Thus there exists no single, inviolate, "original" version of a ritual ; on ly a total ity of al l its previous performances. What, then , are our champions of culture trying to preserve? And why?

The "why" merits examination . The fol lowers of the cultural zoo approach are normally members Of the urban middle and upper classes. They curse their rootlessness and thei r technology ridden existence; they pine for the simple l ife . And in their view, simple equals real/natu ral/authentic equals rural .

25

The Great Elephant March

Chunky silver Lambani jewelry and heavi ly e mbroidered and spangled skirts, handed down from generation to generation , are eagerly sought after by the memsahibs. The Lambani wo man dons beads instead, and garments stitched out of cheap mil l cloth . The poor buy plastic water pots, while the brass ones rest in drawing rooms next to the terracotta Banku ra horses.

Ou r cu ltu ral zoo-keepers do not complain when the three-day marriage cere mony is cut short to one, and the poojari edits what is left of it , to suit the needs of a fast-paced society. Not a murmur is heard when the videographer asks the bridegroom to tie the thali

once again for the benefit of the camera.

But let the vi l lage artist or performer use paint instead of rice flou r, substitute coloured plastic for leaves and flowers, borrow ideas from a TV serial , and immediately our champions cry out: don't sully ou r heritage . They ought to add, sotto voce: technology is meant for us, not for you .

W. are slaves of the consu mer society but vou , you must evade the clutches of advertising, resist the lure of cities. Keep on living in your charming thatched huts that are i Humined by the soft light of oil lamps (why, pray, do you crave for electricity?), and be than kful that you are breathing unpolluted air.

I nside every champion of culture lurks an environmentalist issuing grim statements about the man-nature connection. Save ou r trees for our children , he pleads piteously. Dams are anti- people. But those very forests that are being denuded feed industries which man ufacture paper and texti les, which he can not live without. The dams that displace thousands of villagers feed the cities with electricity which he cannot, simply can not, l ive without.

He blames tourism for creating neocolonial ghettos; five-star hotels for white tourists have cut off the fisherfolk's access to beaches. True, but he forgets that we ou rselves have created urban ghettos for the poor. A foreign presence merely hightens existing inequalities.

There is no such thing as a level playi ng field, of course. The strong have crushed the weak since time imme morial . Nobody can change the laws of human natu re, none can stop the tides of change.

26

The poor buy plastic water pots, while the brass ones rest in drawing rooms next to the terracotta Banlcura horses.

One could blame it all on a wrecked

ecollomy and wrong priorities.

We have money for guns but not

jorjood.

Tourism Issues in Public Do1Tl.OJi,n

It is change that our champions of culture are trying to resist. They wish to museu mise the past: they do not l ike to be reminded that the old support structures of society have collapsed, and that the old ways of l i fe have yielded to the new .

. One could blame it all on a wrecked economy and wrong priorities. We have money for i,luns but not for food. We export our choicest resou rces, then beg for loans to import what we don't need. We lower the price of cosmetics, raise the prices of rice and wheat. We spend Rs. 20 lakhs on gajamela for 288 foreigners (Kerala tou rism department figures).

�- .

It's our economic instabi lity that lays us open to al ien cultural inf luences, goes the theory. But that is not the whole truth . All round prosperity could bring about even more shattering cultural changes. We could be racing even faster down the path the West has shown us .

If the West is the bogey ou r champions make it out to be, why don't they start from scratch by targetting shoes, trousers and the nighties/housecoats that are the dayti me wear of practically every

27

maami in Mylapore and mausi in Meerut? They can progressively

work their way up to cosmetics , convent schools and that classic B ritish hand- me-down - ou r legal system.

Like it or not, the U.S. is the new coloniser and its cultu re, the

d ominant one today. North American cultu re has left its imprint on

India, as it has on every part of the globe . We have assi milated it,

but surely we haven't been engulfed by it.

Maybe our poor champions are ti l ting at imaginary windmil ls. We

should remind the m that th e strongest cultu res are those that are able to adapt and absorb, yet retain their fundamental chara

cteristics. In dian cu ltu re is resi l ient enough , and doesn't need them

to defend it, thank you . Ou r cultu re is not a delicate rose, the heart of which is being corroded by a canker. I t is more l ike that co mmon

garden flower, the "changing rose" , which turns fro m white to shel l

p ink to magenta by eveni ng , under the ever-strengthen ing rays of the sun.

Reproduced from The Hindu, May 1 , 1994

28

Coastal Conundrum A resort project in Orissa

Tapas Ray

From the bridge over the Kusabhadra river on the Puri-Konarak coastal road, the view is one of great scenic beauty. The river arches away to the left through a casuarina forest to the sea

more than 2 km downstream . The sea, hidden by the forest which stretches along the road as far as the eye can see, can be sensed, but not seen .

This is the spot where Orissa, and in fact the country as a whole, faces a major development conundrum. As part of a plan to boost earnings, especially foreign exchange, from the State's considerable tourism potential , the Government proposes to set up here a 9-km-long lUxury beach resort complex for affluent foreigners and other top-bracket tou rists. But environmentalists determinedly oppose the project which will requi re the clearing of a part of a reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary. They claim it will cause grave damage to the ecology and the socio-economic fabric of the area. The plan has met with resistance within the Government too.

The 33-km-long Konarak-Puri beach has attracted the tou rism industry for decades. The State's Tourism Minister, Ananga Uday Singh Deo, a hotel ier who had pioneered star-grade establish ments in Orissa, had appl ied for a plot of land in 1 968 . There have since been many other applicants, and in 1 989, when the Congress(l) was in power, clearance was given to one such , on ly to be revoked in 1 991 vide a Union Ministry of Environment and Forests notification under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1 986, seeki ng to regulate all construction activity on the coasts.

The beach came into the l imel ight again in May last year when the Union Ministry of Civi l Aviation and Tourism, in its National Action Plan, identified the Bhubaneswar- Puri- Konaraktravel circuit among 1 5 destinations across the country for "intensive de\(elopment" with Central assistance as wel l as State and private

. sector investment. Bhubaneswar, with many archaeological

29

Puri-Konarch beach project, Environmentalists determinedly oppose the project.

The number of applicants

seeking land !rad grow; ! to 74 by December 1 993

and contained such names as

the Tatas, the Bir/as, the

Oberois, the Thapars and the

Dalmias.


attractions - Buddhist, Jain and Hindu - in and around it , is an i mportant destination. So is Konarak, with its 1 3th centu ry Sun Temple which never fai ls to awe, though the temple proper has been long lost to the elements and what stands today is only a chariot whose exquisite stone wheels have become a symbol of Orissa. Puri , with its fine beach, is a leisu re tou rist's dream and has the added attraction of being a major pi lgri mage centre. Not far away is the sprawl ing and beautiful Chi l ika lake, a nature lover's paradise, part of which is a marine sanctuary.

And between Konarak and Puri l ies one of the finest beaches in the world.

By the t ime the Centre's document was published, the Orissa Govemment had drawn up an ambitious plan for a 2, 227-acre (901 .25 hectare) resort complex and approached the Centre for de reservation of forest land . The area, bound by the Kusabhadra in the west, was part of the Gada Bangar Protected Reserve Forest and the Konarak-Balukhanda wildlife sanctuary. Under the Forests (Conservation) Act, 1 980, Central approval is needed before forest land can be diverted to non-forestry uses such as tou rism. Another appl ication, th is time in the prescribed format along with the 50-year perspective plan, including the land use master plan, was lodged with the Centre in May 1 993.

In December 1 992, before the formal request for de reservation was made, the Centre had declared the Puri-Konarak belt a "Special Tou rism Area" . All th is activity triggered a veritable gold rush among hotel iers , established and otherwise. The number of applicants seeking land had grown to 74 by the second week of Dece mber 1 993, according to official sources, and contained such names as the Tatas, the Birlas, the Oberois, the Thapars and the Dalmias. A nu mber of foreign investors, including mult inationals, were also reportedly knocking at the door, though their names did not figu re in the list the Government placed before the Assembly in response to members' demands.

Though the hotel ier looby and the two Govern ments were thus eager to exploit the Pu ri-Konarak beach , the State Government faced stiff opposition fro m with in . Towards the end of April, when the request to Delh i for dereservation was being processed by the State's Department of Envi ronment and Forests, G. S. Padhi, then

30

Coastal Conundrum

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests , Orissa, p laced h is disapproval on record. In a letter to the Secretary to the department, he pointed out that the 901 .25 hectares mentioned in the plan was meant for the fi rst phase of the project. How many such phases would there be and how much forest land would ultimately be needed were questions that had not been touched upon . "Un less th e project as a whole is reviewed ," Padh i wrote, "it is difficu l t to give any opinion on the possible effects of diversion of forest land for non-forest uses in that region ."

The sen ior forester, known as a man of A academic disposition , pointed out that the enti re Orissa coast was in the cyclone-prone zone of the Bay of Bengal and a tree belt was essential for preventing wind erosion and "sand-casting" , the pheno menon of sand blown in land by the wind, covering homestead and agricu ltu ral land in the interior. Without a tree cover, the hinterland would be reduced to sand dunes, he said, "as was the landscape not too long ago when casuarina plantation was not taken up to stabi l ise the shorel ine."

Moreover, Padhi pointed out, fuelwood is scarce in the PuriKonarak area. Conversation of forest land into a resort complex would push up de mand for wood further and lead to the destruction of the remaining tree cover on government as wel l as private land . This wou ld result in an annual deficit of about 1 ,000 truckloads of fuelwood in the area. Considering the high seasonal tou rist arrival , this would cause severe proble ms. More i mportant, Padh i wrote, would be the damage to the env i ronment. With the project taking up as much land as was proposed, about 10 km of the beach would be almost denuded, exposing the hinterland to the destructive forces of the sea and the wind.

Padhi also hinted that if theft of t imber and cashewnut was checked, the earn ings from these items in the area covered by the project wou ld be much higher than the Rs. 28 lakh per an num estimated by h is subordinate officer, the Divis ional Forest Officer, PurL These estimates , incidental ly, have been used in the cost-benefit analysis wh ich accompanies the proposal for dereservation . The revenue loss has been counted as part of the cost of the project .

The forestry ch ief, however, made i t clear that he recognised the need for a tou rism complex in the "overall interest of the State", and

31

With the project taking up as

much land as was proposed, about 10 km of the beach would be almost denuded, exposing tire hinterland to the destructive forces of the sea and the wind.

"Why do the hotels need an acre for every

suite? "


suggested that the land needs of the project be curtai led to l imit its i l l-effects.

Instead of paying heed, the Orissa Govemment not only sent the proposal to Delhi in the original form, but punished Padhi by relegating h im to the less-important post of Chief Wildlife Warden-cum-Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (\Nildlife).

While Padh i had to be overruled, his successor in the Forest Department's wildlife wing only needed a certain degree of pressure to revise his opin ion that the project would adversely affect the inhabitants of tlW 72 sq km Konarak-Balukhanda sanctuary. His letter, which forms an annexure to the proposal for dereservation , admits that there are two endangered species - the black buck and the monitor l izard - among these. Their numbers, according to h im, are four and 1 5 respectively. The others l isted by him are cheetal (47) , Jungle cat (two) , mongoose (one), rhesus monkey (five), crow pheasant ( 1 0) and jackal (two). The official said the 63 sq km of sanctuary area that would remain outside the resort eomplex would serve adequately for the animals' habitat. His colleagues, however, told Frontline that the numbers quoted were "rubbish" and there were many more in real ity. Moreover, the resort complex with its myriad noises and forms of pol lution - including veh icular - would disturb thei r habitat .

But the overrul ing of Padhi and the submission of the wildl ife chief does not mean llesistance with in the Government has been crushed. Several forestry officials told this correspondent in the second week of December they were opposed to the fel l ing of trees required by the project, and felt that far too much land was being sought for dereservation . "Why do the hotels need an acre for every suite?" one of them wondered, pointing out that the master plan indicate th is kind of land use. Also, the same five-star hotels which make do with perhaps two acres in some cities or five acres in Goa had applied for 1 00, 1 50 and even 300 acres on the Konarak-Puri beach . Another said the whole thing smelled of a land scam. In the event of the project fall ing through because of cash problems (the investment needs have been estimated to l ie somewhere between RS. 1 ,000 and Rs. 2,000 crore) the land is l ikely to be sold off as prime real estate.

.

A senior tourism official told Frontline that forestry officials were

32

Coastal Conundrum

doing everyth ing possible to "frustrate" the ambitious foreignexchange earn ing plan . The latter den ied the allegation , saying they were bound to abide by forestry and environmental laws, which had become qu ite stri ngent i n recent years.

Though the State Govemment was able to ignore Padhi 's objections, it has stumbled over obstacles put up by a smal l but vocal group of envi ronmental activists led by Banka Behari Oas, president of the Orissa Krushak Mahasangh.' Oas, a former State Revenue Min ister and a former member of the Rajya Sabha, was i nstrumental in the vi rtual scrapping of a Tata fi rm's controversial "semi-i ntensive" prawn culture project in the Chi l ika lake.

I n the present case, Oas procured a copy of Padhi 's letter and used i t to buttress his demand for scrapping the project. He has been campaigning on several fronts, including in Parl iament. I n September, Oas got 1 3 MPs from various parties t o write to Prime M inister p.v. Narasimha Rao urging him not to approve the resort complex plan. Among the signatories were Shivaj i Patnaik of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) , Chitta Basu ofthe Forward Bloc, Sr ikant Jena of the Janata Oal , Anadi Oas of the Congress ( I ) and Sanjay Singh and Kamal Morarka, then i n the Samajvadi Janata Party. Sen ior CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee is also reported to have spoken against the project in the Lok Sabha.

Oas has been working at the grassroots, too, visiting vi l lages behind the project area, with a few young faithfuls. His message seems to have got home, as th is correspondent discovered during a recent visi t . There were echoes of the Chipko movement i n the words of Ram Oehra, an affluent farmer of Tikana , who said the people would stop tree-fel l ing at any cost, by embracing th.e trunks if need be. "Every leaf and twig is usefu l ," he said , adding that if the trees went , sand would destroy agricultural land in the h interland. Moreover, cattle wou ld lose their grazing ground i n the forest. "We do not need hotel jobs here," he said .

Purna Chandra Misra, president of the Bhuvan vil lage committee , had more to say. One point he mentioned was fi rewood , which would g row scarce with the chopping down o f trees. He admitted many vi l lagers too fel l trees i llegally . The vi l lage would

• Orissa Farmers' Federation.

33

Says Madhusudan: "They have brought the entire staff, except perhaps sweepers and suchlike, from outside."

Clearly, the Gada Bangar reserve

forest, the Konarak-Balukhan

da sanctuary and their nthe,..,.1Iise

ecologically sfnsitive nature

brought the resort project

area within CRZ I


also lose an important sou rce of income, he said. In the cu rrent year,

on an investment of Rs. 70,000 , i t has earned a return of Rs. 80,000 from cashewnut col lected fro m a block of the forest taken on lease

from the Government. So me of the money is kept aside for festivals

and other common uses and the rest distributed among the

households, a l l of which have contributed labou r.

Though the area fal ls with in the con stituency of the powerful

Reven u e. Min ister , Surendra Nath Nayak, who is an enthusiastic

supporter of the project, lower-rung leaders of the ru l ing Jan ata Dal

seem to have tu rned against it. B iswanath Pradhan, member of the

Gop panchayat samiti , said , "No hotels," citi ng fears not on ly of

increased soi l sal in ity, but of an " invasion of AIDS, d rugs and prostitution." ( In fact , Banka Behari Das has been givi ng the exa mple of Goa and has drawn support from that State's g reen

activists, including Claude Alvarez.) Gopinath Patra , chai rman of

the samiti , was a l ittle more cautious. "I l ive elsewhere," he said , but

added that "my people are against the project ."

Most locals seem to believe there wou ld be no jobs for them in the co mplex. Says M adh usudan , a Congress( l ) member of the

Baragaon g ram panchayat, citing a l Uxury hotel of the area: 'They have brought the enti re staff, except perhaps sweepers and

suchl ike, from outside." However, he does not mind hotels in the area if they co me up on private land and do not take up more than

five acres or so.

Ban ka Behari Das has also written to Union Min ister for Envi ronment and Forests Kamal Nath , Envi ronment and Forests

Secretary R. Rajaman i and I nspector-General of Forests and

Envi ronment A. K. M u kherjee , arguing against the p roject in its present shape.

Das pointed out that after the natural mangrove forests on the

coast van ished early this centu ry due to human i ntervention , the

area faced problems of san d-casti ng and fuel sh ortage. The

authorities then took up a casuari n a plantation dr ive which was

periodically accelerated, one such occasion being after a

devastat ing cyclone in the 1 970s. Clear ing the forest would retu rn

vi l lages in the h interland to "an econ omy of sand and sand dunes."

34

Coastal Conundrum

He struck the hardest blow by th rowing l ight on a seriou$ flaw i n the State Government's dereservation proposal , which has put the Centre on the defensive. He pointed out that the area earmarked for the project had been wrongly designated in that document as Category III Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ-III) , whi le it was in fact o f the CRZ I type. I n its February 1 9, 1 991 notification , issued under Sections 3( 1 ) and 3(2) (V) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1 986, the Un ion Environment and Forests Min istry had laid down that coastal stretches with in 500m of the high-tide l ine wou ld be designated CRZ-I if the areas are "ecologic;:ally sensitive and important, such as national parks , mari ne parks, sanctuaries, reserve forests , wildl ife habitats . . . " No new construction was allowed with in 500m of the high-tide l ine in such areas. CRZ III, on the other hand, perta ined to relatively undistu rbed areas other than the CRZ I type and in these, hotel construction was al lowed only beyond 200m of the h igh-tide l ine. With in the 200m belt, agriculture, horticulture, garden i ng , pastures, playgrounds, parks and salt manufactu re from sea wate r would be possible.

Clearly, the Gada Bangar reserve forest, the Konarak-Balukhanda sanctuary and their otherwise ecologically sensitive natu re brought the resort project area with in C RZ I, but the State Government chose to call i t CRZ- I I I because that al lowed hotel construction close to the water and far g reater freedom to use the beach at wil l .

To Das' charge on this score , Kamal Nath repl ied that the Orissa Government had not submitted i ts Coastal Zone Management Plan on the basis of which the Centre was to final ise the coastal areas' categorisation . The deadl ine for this, incidentally, had expi red on February, 1 9, 1 991 , that is , a year after the CRZ notification was issued. Kamal Nath has also pointed out that pending such classification , the State Governments were obl iged to adhere to the norms la id down in the notification and also to submit, for the consideration of the Envi ronment Appraisal Committee, an environmental impact assessment for each proposed development activ i ty in the 200-500m zone.

Whi le the State Government is supposed to have submitted one such analysis about two months ago, th is does not seem to have found favour, and A. F. Ferguson & Co. , a Delh i-based management

35

A farcical note was added by Chief Minister Biju Patnaik who, true to style, reportedly tltreatened Banka Behari Das

As for the fears over drugs, AIDS and prostitution, the Minister told Frontline, "No!

every place is Thailand. "


consultancy firm, has been entrusted with the task of reworking the project to make it "more eco-friendly." At the same time, the Govemment is trying to free itself of the C RZ I problem by dereserving the reserve forest and denotifying the sanctuary. Since the latter requi res an Assembly resolution, Banka . Behari Oas has appealed to M LAs of all parties not to have such a th ing on their conscience .

Whi le Oas has mustered the support of environ mentalists, the Orissa Government has Un ion Tou rism Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on its side. In a flashy "beach festival" organised at Puri in Jate October evi dently to sell the resort idea, Azad declared his support for the project. A farcical note was added by Chief Minister Biju Patn aik who, true to style, reportedly th reatened Banka Behari Oas (who was not present) from that publ ic p latform. Oas promptly challenged the Chief Min ister or any representative of h is to a public debate .

State Tou rism Minister A. U. Singh Oeo's handling o f the thomy subject , however, was far more mature . He has sought to neutral ise opposition from the State Congress( l ) and thus make it hard for Kamal Nath to refuse permission by pointing out that the Centre itself had declared the place a special tou rism area and Kamal Nath , too, had cleared the spot after an aerial su rvey. Singh Oeo h as also tried to convi nce the press, with figu res, that misgivi ngs about the project were misplaced. Not all the 5 1 7,778 trees of the area (of which 477,692 are casuarina, 30,064 cashewnut and the rest neem and eucalyptus) would h ave to be fel led. S ince coastline regulations (meaning those on CRZ III) prohi bit construction on more than 33 per cent of the plot area, about 250, 000 trees would be left standing. All trees in the 200m zone (from the h igh-tide l ine) would remain.

Singh Oeo h as said fears of win d erosion and cyclone damage are unfoun ded, since the bare, 10-km-long coast at Puri has not been affected th us in many years. Also, there wou ld be no net green loss, since compensatory afforestation would be taken up elsewhere .

Speaking o n the positive side, t h e Minister said ben efits from the project would be 2 .45 times the costs , i ncluding environ mental ones. The s mall I ndonesian island of Bali , which he h ad visited, attracted over th ree mi l lion foreign tou rists every year, which spu rred the

36

Coastal Conundrum

economy with a massive infl.ow of foreign exchange. In comparison , the whole of India played host to only 1 .4 mil l ion foreign tourists a year. With the Bhubaneswar airport being upgraded to receive wide-bodied ai rcraft- it will also have an air-conditioned terminal bui lding - in two years, all at the init iative of the Chief Min ister, it was essential that the resort complex be made operational within the same time-frame so that the area could make a breakthrough in global tourism.

As for the fears over drugs, AIDS and prostitution, the Min ister told Frontl ine, "Not every place is Thai land." He pointed out that Bali had succeeded in keeping such evils at bay.

Opponents of the project have picked holes in Singh Deo's defence. They point out that the land identified for compensatory afforestation , scattered in pockets that l ie 1 50 to 200 km inland , is of l ittle relevance to coastal ecology. They also say the cost-benefit analysis is dubious since it does not show a clear break-up of the costs. No less important is the State's record in managing existing beach resorts. Pol lution has grown sharply at the Puri resort, where a canal-sized drain empties into the sea. In recent years, not only have tourists complained of an over-powering stench in the beach area, they have often been affl icted by dysentery and other gastro-intestinal disorders. Hotels, which have sprung up close to the waterl ine, often dump refuse on the sand and it is not uncommon to find pools of stinking kitchen run-off collecting on the beach. Septic tanks can also be seen on the beach , a portion of which has been occupied by semi-permanent shops. Singh Deo says a sewage treatment plant is in the pipel ine, but considerable damage has been done al ready. In the beautifu l but far less-developed beach resort of Gopalpur-on-Sea in Ganjam district, too, similar pollution is in evidence.

At Konarak, one of the main attractions of the area, the administration has shown a singular lack of aesthetic sense. Close to the periphery of the majestic Sun Temple, three separate structures have come up in violation of laws which prohibit such construction within 1 00m. These are an office of the Notified Area Counci l , a shopping complex of the NAC and an open-air auditorium where an extravaganza called "Konarak Festival" was held in early December. The Archaeological Survey of I ndia (ASI ) lodged a complaint with the local pol ice and the construction did stop, but

37

Close to the periphery of the majestic Sun Temple, three separate stmctures have come up in violation of laws which prohibit such constmction within 1 00m.

Tourism Issues in Publ¥ Domain

there is no sign yet that the structu res wi l l be demolished. As a result,

the Sun Temple's surroundings have taken on a pedestrian look, and the more disceming i nternational tou rists may drop Konarak

from their itinerary once word gets arou nd.

Clearly, if Orissa wishes to exploit its i mmense tou rism potential ,

it has to set its house i n order before e mb�Hking on costly and

ambitious projects such as the beach resort, which cou ld prove

damaging to the environment. If at all such projects are considered

essential on econo mic considerations, they should be cleared only

on the basis of comprehensive envi ronmental i mpact assessments ,

which seem to be absent at p resent. Experts have been pointing

out the dangers in an ever-growing number of areas, and noth i ng

should be done before al l these factors are studied i n detai l .

Reproduced from Frontline, January 14, 1994.

38

Coastal Conundrum

The twin threats

Sunil Sen Sharma, a senior marine geologist who retired as director of the Geological Survey of I ndia, says the beach r�sort project will affect the coast principally in two ways.

He told Frontline the tree belt had been raised on the KonarakPuri coast to stabi l ise the sand dunes, that is, to prevent them from moving'nland. I f the trees go, the dunes will be destabil ised again. Moreover, the "beach profile," that is, the profile of the sloping ground betwee n the water and the land, and area between the low and high tide lines, wil l change - even if construction activity is l imited to 200 or 500m of the hig h-tide l ine.

The other point Sen Sharma sought to make - the possibility of unpredictable changes in the sea's erosion-accretion patte rn in adjoining areas of the coast- appears not to have been conside red by anyon e in government o r outside connected to the project. All over the wortd, the geologist says, whenever antierosion measures (such as groins, rivetments and breakwaters) are taken at a particu lar spot to p rotect property on the shore, intensified erosion occurs at some adjo ining areas, and "accretion" - the sea receding because of the deposition of silt - at others. This is because the sill-<:arrying "littoral" cu rrents, that is, those which move parallel to the shore, are disturbed by the protective structures.

In I ndia, Visakhapatnam and Madras are two examples. In Madras, the prese nt expanse of the Marina beach is the result of the. ha rbour protection work executed after the port was opened in 1 876. Within the first e ight years alone , the sea had receded ·from a 26-acre area following heavy depOSition . On the other hand, the re was heavy erosion in the area to the immediate north of the port, which led to mo re p rotective structures.

In a lUX U ry resort complex of the type p lanned on the Konarak- Puri beach, investment by hoteliers alo n e will be of the order of hundreds of crores of rupees. Naturally, they wil l demand protective structures at the first sign of erosion and this will set off a chai n reaction in the adjoining areas. Even the Konarak temple, which stands about a kilometre from the water, may .be in danger.

An intensive study of the area and its geological features is a must before such p rojects can be cleared, Sen Sharma fell.

Tapas Ray

Frontline, Jan. 14, 1994

39

Tourism Issues in Public DOTTULin

I�ive-Star Plans

According to the Orissa Government's perspective plan d rawn up

last year, the Kona rak-Puri beach resort complex wil l cover 2,227

acres (90 1 .25 hectares) and have a beach frontage of about 9 km.

It will measure up to intematio nal standards, "co mpeting with . . .

popular destinations like Bali and Phuket."

About half of the total area - 1 ,075 acres to be precise - is to be

earmarked for "deluxe resorts," defined as those of four-star- plus

to super-deluxe grades. "Econo my" resorts, that is, those of three

to four-star grades, will be a llotted 1 50 acres. It is envisaged that

in six or seven years, there will be 900 rooms in the deluxe category

and 600 i n the economy class.

About 350 acres will be set aside for an 1 8-ho le championship

grade golf course and a nine-hole golf academy. A country club, a

convention centre with state-of-the-art aud io-visual gadgetry,

including simultaneous translation facilities, and a helipad fil lo take

20 to 25-seate rs have also been planned, as has been an

all-weather jetty for 1 DO-seater passenger cruise boats and

catamarans.

There will be discotheques, swimming pools, health clubs and

"fitness a reas," jogging tracks, putting greens, bowling croquet and

lawns, volleyball and tennis cou rts, and so on. There will also be

provision for water sports such as sailing, water skiing,

para-sailing, water scooters, wind surfing, kayaking and river

cruises.

An artisans' village, where tou rists will be able to watch craftsmen

at work and buy their products, will come up. At a food bazar, Oriya

food will be pre pared and se rved in an ethnic ambience. Also on

the drawing board are a hospital , a post office and

telecommunications centre, a bus and taxi stand, auto-repair

garages, liv ing quarters for resort staff, infrastructure facilities such

as electricity, water supply and sewerage installations, g ardens,

wooded a reas . . .

40

Tapas Ray

Frontline, Jan. 14, 1994

Confronting TNCs Some thoughts on strategy

Joshua Karliner

As transnational corporations come to dominate an ever larger share of the world's economy, their impact on society and the environment grows as well. Whether it be ozone

destruction, cigarette-caused lung cancer, climate change, toxic waste, pesticide poisoning, overfishing, or deforestation, the transnationals play a prominent role in undermining human health and destroying the world's environment.

In response to a widespread number of abuses, various local, national and intemational NGOs and community groups have found themselves directly confronting destructive corporate behaviour. Activists have been so successful in placing some limits on destructive TNC activity, that in many cases they have posed real threats to many a corporate bottom line. The TNCs have reacted by becoming increasingly sophisticated and by employing numerous tactics to counteract their foes. These tactics include high profile publicity campaigns to convince the public that they are green and socially responsible. They also include moves to co-opt opponents, efforts to roll back regu latory regimes, and the use of intemational agreements, such as the GATT, to undermine national controls of their actions. At times the TNCs have also actually been forced -often after great struggle - to institute real, positive changes in their behaviour and production practices.

NGOs and community groups rarely have the opportunity to learn from past efforts to confront TNCs, but rather repeatedly find themselves reinventing the wheel. We often don't know what has been successful, what has failed, and how the corporations have adapted to our methods. We rarely share strategy, tactics or information. While global corporations are often acutely aware of the opposition they face throughout in every country, various

Joshua /<"8 rliner is currently writing a book on transnational corporations and the environment.

4 1

Community victories, isolated from the national and international context however, nm the risk of only dL<placing the problem elservhere.

The most classic example of an international

corporate campaign, where

we can see both success and

failure, is the Nestle Boycott.


commun ities in different parts of the world can be fighting the same

co mpany and won't even know about one another, despite the fact

that coming together wou ld st(engthen and rei nforce each struggle.

Knowledge and information about TNCs, the strategies that can be

employed to co mbat their abuses, and who else is fighting them is

vital in bui lding social justice and ecological sanity in an increasingly

global ised economy. The fol lowing is a brief, and necessarily

non-comprehensive overview of some <:>f these strategies.

National Legislation and Regu lation

This is one of the front l ines of the battle . The fi rst wave of

envi ronmental shock troops , mostly in the i ndustrialised North ,

sneaked in beh ind corporate l ines a couple of decades ago and

began building legislative barricades , sowing regulatory mine fields,

and digging trenches in preparation for a prolonged shoot-out with

the polluters. Disparagingly referred to now by the corporate and

govern mental free marketeers as 'the fai led model com mand and

control' regulation, these efforts have won a few real victories , and

made some progress i n reforming industrial practices.

Community Mobi l isation

Local commu nities often feel the impacts of TNCs' env i ron

mentally destructive behaviour more d i rectly than anyone else. They

have mobi l ised the world over to fight specific activities and p rojects

of individual TNCs, often successful ly. When connected with

national or international networks or coalitions, the impacts of thei r '

efforts can multiply.

An example of such networks are Communities Concerned

About Carbide, a col lection of local commun ity groups from across

the US, all of whom are fighting Union Carbide; th is diverse group

is also working with the gas disaster victi ms in Bhopal . Another

example is the PARTIZANS g roup (People Against Rio Tinto Zinc

and its Subsidiaries) which is an international network of

communities and organisations fighting the envi ron mentally and

social ly destructive mining activities of a UK-based corporation .

Community victories, isolated from the national and international

context however, run the risk of only displacing the problem

elsewhere. When Japanese g roups opposed the manufactu re of

42

Confronting TNCs

'rare earth' in Japan, for example, the Mitsubishi Corporation relocated this hazardous practice to Malaysia. (See Box)� Similarly, as local communities across the United States reject incineration as an unsafe method of hazardous waste disposal, corporations such as Waste Management I nternation�1 are exporting this technology to the Third World.

Corporate Cam paigns

While vastly varied, corporate campaigns use a diversity of strategies and tactics to put pressure on corporations to change their destructive practices. The single most experienced constituency when it comes to corporate campaigns is organised labour, which has waged numerous battles over the years. Their strategies and tactics, now used by others as well, have included negative publicity, leveraging a weak spot on a corporation's board of directors, boycotts and market pressure, law suits, pressure through governments and international institutions, pressure from the grassroots, pressure from labour unions, dialogue and negotiation with the corporation and more.

The most classic example of an international corporate ca rnpaign, where we can see both success and failure, is the Nestle Boycott. Briefly, the Nestle campaign succeeded in building an international, North- South network that successfully put pressure on the Nestle corporation to change its practices in marketing a powdered substitute for mothers' milk. The campaign stigmatised Nestle in the public eye, succeeded in building up an international boycott of Nestle's p roducts, successfully created and forced Nestle and other TNCs to adh e re to a UN WHO Code of Conduct on baby food, and brought Nestle to the negotiating table, where it agreed to a seri�s of demands.

Once the boycott was lifted however, Nestle, aided by changing condit ions at the U �J , began to weaken and exploit loopholes in the Code of Conduct. The public was left with the impression that Nestle had changed . But while the worst excesses of its practices were cu rtai led , Nestle continued to expand its marketing of mothers milk su nst i tu!e in the Th ird World. A renewed boycott has been on since 1 989 , uu t in many parts of the world the public knows little of this efforts , whi le Nestle 's PR work has grown increasingly sophisticated . The bottom line is that once the heat was off, Nestle

43

Given that TNCs are so powerful, often one of the only ways to get tltem to move is to pit one company or entire sector against another.

We need to develop coherent

strategies that use the tactics

described above as well as many

others, in a systematic effort

to force corporations to be

accountable t1nd responsible


was able to go about business as usual, with relatively few changes

in its overal l p racti ces.

Playi ng corporations off against each other

Given that TNCs are so powerfu l , often one of the only ways to

get them to move is to pit one company or enti re sector against

anothe r. An exa mple of th is can be fou nd with the case of global

war ming. I t would seem all but i mpossible to transform the all

powerful oi l companies, whose activities are contributi ng to cl i mate

change, as well as other social and envi ronmental problems.

However , the al l -powerfu l i nsu rance companies are increasingly

concemed about the i mpacts of the oil co mpanies on their own .

economic viabi l i ty. Encouraging such a clash of titans , might yield positive results.

In another h igh ly creative approach , Greenpeace scientists

developed a CFC-free (ozone friendly) refrigerator - something that corpor ate scientists said was i mpossible and unprofitable. The new refr igerator is being produced by an East German fridge factory that

was on the verge of being closed down in th e post- reun ification era. Demand for th is ' Greenfreeze' refrigerator has been so great in Germany, and interest has been so strong in places l ike China, that

the TNCs i n this i ndustry have been forced to develop th eir own CFC-free models ! Thus G reenpeace was successfu l in generating jobs in an econo mically depressed area, while simultaneously forcing change in the production patterns of an entire grou p of TNCs.

I nternational Law

Various opportun ities exist to c reatively challenge TNCs through

legal action , and to begin to build i nternational legal precedents and structu res to control corporations .

The Costa Rican DBCP case is one of the most i mportant intemational corporate l iabi l ity cases ever. By allowing Costa Rican banana workers to sue Shell Oil in a United States cou rt for steri l i ty caused by the pesticide DBCP, a Texas j udge h as potential ly opened the door to holding corporations l iable, i n their home country for activities carried out abroad. I t also provides an example of how a specific i nit iative cou ld have b road impl ications and set important

44

Confronting TNCs

precedents for a host of other areas. Th is case is sti l l under heavy legal fi re from both the Shel l and Dow corporations.

Treaties and Conventions

I nternational treaties and conventions have served as i mportant

i nternational tools to control corporate behaviour. The Montreal Protocol , for example, is forcing the phasing out of a multi

bi l l ion-dollar CFC production industry dominated by a s mall few

TNCs. I t is important to recognise that these same TNCs lobbied

every step of the way against the CFC phase-out. But when it

beca me inevitable, they successfu l ly lobbied for the Montreal

Protocol to al low for CFC substitutes they produced , despite the fact that such substitutes also contributed to either ozone destruction or

climate change. Th us, whi le this treaty has served to regu late TNCs, it h as also, to a certain extent, been co-opted by them.

A similar dynamic has taken place in the Climate Convention , where the TNCs continue to lobby hard in resistance to international control on the production of carbon dioxide.

Confronting the TNCs

The above is a brief and incomplete look at some strategies and tactics, successes and fai lures. What is clear is that not enough of this type of information, nor other information about the specific

records of individual co mpanies, is being shared among and between communities and NGOs fighting TNC abuses. Yet , if local , national and i ntemational groups working for the environment and

social justice are going to successful ly counter transnational corporate abuses in the e ra of globalisation, we must begin to join

forces. For a victory against a company in one part of the world may

create serious problems in another. If Mitsubishi's Rare Earth plant closes in Japan and moves to M alaysia, i t is not a victory. If th is

same plant is forced to close in Mal aysia because of its abuses, and it moves to China or India, it is only displaci ng the problem once

more. We need to develop coherent strategies that use the tactics

described above as wel l as many others, in a systematic effort to

force corporations to be accou ntable and responsible, rather than merely forcing them the inconvenience of seeking out the next path of least resistance .

45


In order to come together we must come to an understanding of what common principles and goals unite us, and begin to advocate the m together. For starters , such principles might include public access to information, democratic participation and community control over develop ment decis ions, requi ring clean production and the use of the precautionary principle, the el i mination of double standards between North and South , enforce ment of strict l iability, and the requ i rement of environmental i mpact assessments. While it would obviously take a tremendous amount of dialogue to bui ld a common platform a mong many groups fighting various TNC abuses, such a joint effort is necessary to combat the TNCs, who are increasingly working together to paint themselves g reen , whi le securing thei r shared objectives of a less regulated, faster growing, more profitable world economy.

TNCs, though few i n number ... are the mai n entities responsible for the global environmental crisis:

� TNCs in oil production, road transport, chlorofluo rocarbon (C FC) production, e lectricity generation , energy-intensive metals production and agriculture , account for roughly 50% of all emissions of greenhouse gases, according to a rece nt study by the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations.

� TNCs dominate the trade in (and in many cases the extractio n or production of) natural resources and commodities, resulting in depletion or degradation of forests, soils, water and marine resources and biodiversity, throug h mining, drill ing , logging and large-scale agriculture .

� TNCs dominate global and national industry a n d transport, a n d a re involved in productio n activities resulting in atmospheric pollution, industrial and occupatio nal hazards, toxic wastes and u nsafe products.

� TNCs are also the main transmitters of environmentally unsound production systems and hazardous materials to the Third World . Examples include unsafe pesticides and pharmaceutical drugs banned i n the cou ntry of origi n but exported to the Third World; the re locatio n of polluting ind ustries to the Third World and the i r operation there with lower safety standards ( resulting in accidents such as the Bhopal disaster i n Ind ia); the d umping of radioactive waste i n the South Pacific; and the export of hazardous wastes to Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia. '

From:. Third World Network, Briefing Papers for UNCED no. 7. For ful l text of paper, see Third World Resurgence, Apri l 1 992, page 2 1 -23.

46

Confronting TNCs

I n July 1 982, Mitsubishi in a joint ventu re with local companies started the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) plant in Malaysia to extract yttrium from monazite (a product of tin tai l ings which is radioactive) . Yttrium, a rare earth is used in electrical , e lectronics, optical and medical industries. In the production of yttrium, radioactive dust and gases are released , while the waste left behind is also radioactive. In February 1 985, eight residents from the village of Bukit Merah, in the Northern Malaysian state of Perak where the ARE plant is sited, sued the company on behalf of themselves and the 1 0,000 villagers. They wanted ARE to stop producing , storing and keeping radioactive waste in the v illage v icinity.

This action created legal history in Malaysia as it was the first time that an entire community had got togethe r to act on an enviro nmental issue to protect its health and environment from radioactive pollution. Seen in a wider context, this public interest l itigation was of great significance to peoples in the Third World as it epitomised the struggle of a Third World community to stop a Japanese mu ltinational from doing in Bukit Merah what it co uld not do in Japan.

After a protracted court battle, (during the course of which, so me of the key leaders of the community were detained for two months in 1 987 u nder the cou ntry's harsh p reventive detention laws), the Bukit Merah vil lagers won their suit in J u ly 1 992. The factory was o rdered by the High Cou rt to shut down within 1 4 days. However, hardly two weeks later, ARE fi led an appeal to the Supreme Court and the Court granted an interim suspension of the High Co urt order pending appeal following an ex parte application by ARE. In making the order, the Judges expressed the view that the closure would harm ARE and cause hardship to workers.

The appeal against the High Court decision closing down the facto ry is however sti l l pending. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal , i t is important that experie nces of these struggles such as the above are shared with peoples of other Third World countries. In this respect, the Third World Network in partnership with gro u ps in the North such as the US National Toxics Campaign as well as G reenpeace has formed a global network against toxics, especially the trade in products, wastes and industries. The inaugural meeting was held in Penang in February this year. The object is to establish an information gathering centre and to set up prog rammes to train groups to take up issues pertaining toxics and to i nfluence gove m ment pol icies on toxies .

From Third World Network. Briefing Papers for UNCED No. 7. For Full text of

paper, see Third World Resourcess, April 1992, page 21 -23.

47

Bekal Tourism Project Questions raised by EQUATIONS

In early 1993, the Malayalam-Ianguage media in Kerala witnessed

a heated encounter over the Bekal Special Tourism Area project,

billed as one of Asia's largest projects. Spread over a vast 1 000

acres of land in Kasargod district of North Kerala, the project is

expected to attract an investment of more than Rs 1 000 crores. 1

Leading the attack against the project was Ms Sujatha Devi,

weI/-known social activist and educator, in an article in

Mathrubhoomi Weekly, one of the two top newsweeklies in Kerala.

A rejoinder in defence of the project came from no less than

Mr K. Jayakumar, Special Secretary, Kerala Tourism, also as an

article in the same publication.

Mr Jayakumar's article al/eged that those opposing tourism were

socially irresponsible and ill-informed. He suggested they get their

facts straight before opposing Bekal and other tourism projects, and

offered to provide information - if requested.

Responding to his offer, EQUATIONS wrote an open letter

asking for detailed information about Bekal. The letter was never

published in Mathrubhoomi, for reasons unknown to us, but we

circulated copies amongst concerned friends in Kerala. To give the

issue wider publicity, we are making available an English translation

of the letter we wrote in July 1 993.

We also hope that it will help people elsewhere, faced by the

challenge of major tourism projects, to raise similar questions.

Whether or not such a process results in evoking a response from

government and industry, we believe it to be a helpful way of

evolving concerned debate within appropriate groups, a belief held

out by our experiences this past year in Kerala.

1 . US $ 1 = Rs 31 ; a crore is 1 0 million

48

1 6 July 1 993

The Editor

Math rubhoomi Weekly

Calicut, Kerala.

S i r,

Bekal

EQUATIONS, a Bangalore based organisation has been

conducting .research on Tourism development for the last eight

years , artd is i nterested in tou rism issues from various perspectives.

We are aware of the ongoing debates in Kerala regarding Tou rism , a n d read with g reat interest the article b y Sujatha Devi i n

Mathrubhoomi (VoI . 1 5 , ) a n d Mr .Jayakumar's rejoinder to it (VoI . 1 8) .

M r.Jayakumar wants the critics o f Tou rism to fi rst f ind out what

the Bekal project is al l about, and offers his assistance in this

respect. We a re happy to seek specific and objective data regarding the following, and we hope h e wil l fu lfi ll h is offer:

1 . What are the stated o bjectives of the Bekal tou rist project? Are these stated in a docu ment publ icly avai lable?

2. The concept of Speci al Tou rism Areas (STA) is part of recent national tourism pol icy, spelt out in the National Action Plan for Tou rism ( NAPT, 1 992) . What are the implicati ons, particularly

in te rms of new legislation , of th e STA tag being attached to Bekal? What policy gu idelines and laws , if any, exist for STAs?

Land Require ments

3. What is ttle total land requi red for th is project? How much is

govern ment land? How much land is to be acqu i red? What

wou ld be the com pensation for land acqui red from private

ci tizens?

4. I n the Land Acquisition Notification (as per the Land Acqu isition

Act) of April 1 9 , 1 993 i t is stated : "wherever the Gove rnment of

Ke rala dee ms it essential or l ikely to be essential , for a publ ic

cause, i .e . the Bekal Tourism p roject, the land enu merated in

th e fol lowi ng l ist, may be acq u i red, etc." How does the

49


government define "publ ic purpose" and how does it justify a

tou rism p roject being defined as such?

5. I t is understood that this project is going to be i mple mented on

a phased manner. What are the phase-wise plans? What are the locations and d imensions of land to be acq u i red at each

stage? Has any land su rvey been conducted so far? Do you

intend to publ ish the su rvey resu lts?

Capital Req u i rements

9. What is the total financial outlay for th is project?

1 0 . Will the infrastructu ral investment wil l be contributed by State and / or Central G overn ment financial i nstituti ons? Which are the institutions involved?

1 1 . Has the Ke rala Government al ready entered into any contract or understanding with any private company or i nternational

funding agency for funds, plan ning or execution of the project, or does it intend to do so? What are the detai ls of such

contracts?

1 2 . What contributions a re being esti mated from national and

international fin ancial agencies or companies, and for what specific pu rposes wil l they be expected to contribute?

Overall Project Economics

1 3 . What are the economic benefits anticipated from the project,

both di rect and indirect? Has a feasibil ity study been conducted and are the resu lts publ icly avai lable?

1 4 . How are the basic infrastructu re faci lities (roads, railways ,

wate r, electricity, transport faci l ities, marina , etc. ) envisaged to be p roduced for the Bekal p roject? How does the Government

propose to finance these aspects?

1 5 . What is the e mployment potential of the project? What kinds of employment wil l be generated?

1 6 . If one of the objectives of the project is to provide employment

opportu n ities, wil l vocational education be imparted to the local

50

Bekal

population? How many people can be trained and in which institutions? What is the cost that they will bear for the training?

1 7 . Has there been a survey done of existing ski lls from which an employment plan has been formulated?

Management and Marketing Pol icies

1 8 . What will be the pricing policy for the products and services generated by this project? Has a cost-benefit study been done?

1 9 . W hat is the market ing thrust of the project? W hich niche in the tour ist market does the project address itself to? Are there specific schemes to achieve marketing objectives?

20. Have foreign advertising or Public Relations agencies been hired to promote the project internationally?

2 1 . Have global tenders been floated to implement the project? What is the nature of participation of foreign capital - will foreign companies have equity participation? Or will they be involved through management contracts?

Tou rist Faci l ities

22. What are the tourist facilities planned? What categories (star-rating) of hotels are required, and how many of each? How many Golf cou rses are intended, and of what acreage? What will be the number of swimming pools, tennis courts etc.?

23. What are the p roposed entertainment alternatives for tourists: discotheques , massage parlours, bars, casinos etc. ? How many of each?

Regarding Ecology

23. W hat are the measures taken to protect basic ecological features, li ke water, air and land? Has any study been done on the present status of these variables? To safeguard these what are the standards to be made applicable? How will aquatic fauna be protected?

5 1


24. Has an Environmental I mpact Assessment of the p roject been undertaken , and the necessary resu lting approval obtained from the Union Min istry of Environment and Forests. When was . the clearance granted?

25. What is the estimated 'carrying capacity' of Bekal as a tou rist attraction? On what basis has this been estimated? Is a report publicly avai lable?

25. Since the project is coming up in an area that is known to be short of water, how wil l provision be made for adequate water supply? For example, is there a proposal for a desalination plant?

26 . How will waste water be managed? Wil l there be sewage treatment plants? How wil l effluent standards be mon itored?

27. What area of forestry is going to be cleared in the project area? What are the plans for reforestation? What species of trees are to be introduced for ornamental or other purposes?

Finally, Mr.Jayakumar asserts: "Those who equate tou rism with the underworld of Goa or Kovalam forget that there is a concept of Tourism that runs counter to and beyond this."

We would be happy to know more about the concept Mr.Jayakumar is al luding to, conceived where, when and by whom? Which are the international touris m destinations where this concept has been successfu l ly imple mented? What is the difference between this concept and the Kovalam-Goa model? I n what ways does this concept apply to the plans for Sekal?

We hope the above objective data wi l l enable al l concerned to assess the issues involved i mpartially and initiate an open discuss ion on the full impl ications and ramifications of the Sekal project.

Sincerely,

K T Suresh Coordinator

52

Documents

Tourism Issues in Public Domain