The 17th-century Portuguese Fort Aguada in Goa, India was used to guard against local and foreign invaders. - ST FILE
NEW DELHI: As a doctor based in the western Indian state of Goa, Dr Inacio Fernandes needs a good night’s sleep after working long hours at a stretch.
But such rest has eluded him in the last two years or so.
In fact, the 33-year-old goes to sleep wearing noise-cancelling headphones to block out distracting sounds. Even so, he still wakes up at odd hours.
The reason? Clubs located in his Anjuna village that blast electronic dance music (EDM) for tourists who flock to Goa to revel in its famed nightlife with parties that extend well into the wee hours.
“There have been Sunday mornings when I have got up at 7am listening to EDM and not being able to do anything about it,” said Fernandes.
Things came to a head in August as many residents from Anjuna and Vagator – another neighbourhood around 1.5km away – hit the roads to protest against establishments they say play louder music than permissible, making their lives a hellish affair. They demanded better policing and enforcement of the country’s noise pollution rules that ban playing of loud music after 10pm.
Besides beaches, Goa is known for its historic churches built by its Portuguese colonial rulers, such as this 16th century Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Panaji. - ST PHOTO: DEBARSHI DASGUPTA
With these rules rarely enforced, noise pollution has robbed Goa’s residents of their peace and harmed their health in what was once a quiet and idyllic region.
Mass tourism has also unleashed additional problems upon India’s smallest state, which at around 3,702 sq km is roughly around four times the size of Singapore.
As Indian tourists travel with a vengeance after the Covid-19 pandemic, Goa is struggling with overcrowding and littering at its beaches, traffic jams, improper garbage disposal, water scarcity and degradation of its fragile ecology.
This problem comes at a time when mass tourism has led to similar opposition from locals in Barcelona, besides raising ecological concerns in some of India’s popular hill stations such as Shimla and Mussoorie.
The number of tourists visiting Goa – a state with a population of around 1.6 million – has grown from around 5.2 million in 2015 to more than 8.5 million in 2023, including around 450,000 foreign visitors.
“We have not been able to keep pace with the inflow,” said Mr Mackinlay Barreto, noting how the state’s infrastructure and civic amenities had failed to match tourism growth in Goa’s picturesque coastal belt.
He is the founder of The Local Beats, a travel firm that specialises in curated trips away from the island’s coastline, promising new experiences.
Tourism has long been the mainstay of the Goan economy, directly contributing around 16.43 per cent to the state’s gross domestic product and employing around 35 per cent of the state’s population.
The industry has also helped the state’s residents become among India’s richest, with their per capita income ranked second-highest in the country at 472,070 rupees (S$7,300) in 2021-2022.
But this prosperity has come at a price.
In Sao Tome and Fontainhas, historic Portuguese colonial-era wards in the state’s capital Panaji, tourists looking for Instagram-worthy shots in the quaint and colourful streets have indiscriminately infringed on the privacy of local residents.
“Locals have got fed up, locals have got aggressive, locals have started pushing back and it has become one chaotic situation,” Barreto told The Straits Times, adding that tourists should be policed, if needed, to improve their public conduct.
Among chief complaints of the locals: strangers peering into their houses or walking into their gardens, drones flying over their houses, walls being stained by the footwear of posing tourists and streets becoming ramp walks.
“No photography or videography” signs have appeared on some homes and establishments – but this has proved to be no deterrent.
“As locals, we are not against tourism,” added Fernandes. “But it’s about having sustainable tourism that allows the locals to enjoy their lives as well.”
The popular Sunburn Festival, an annual electronic dance music festival held in Goa, has also found itself in the local crosshairs. In 2023, the three-day festival attracted over 150,000 visitors, heightening concerns about noise pollution, poor traffic management and waste disposal.
But it has become especially controversial with many alleging that the festival had been promoting a “drug culture”. Locals from several villages have already demanded that the festival, usually held in December, be cancelled in 2024.
“It (drugs) is our main concern because it affects our youth, our future generations,” said Jack Mascarenhas, president of Goyche Fuddle Pillge Khatir, a Goa-based non-governmental organisation that has demanded the festival be cancelled in 2024.
Rising outsider interest and investment in Goa has led to deep shifts across the state in recent years.
Its iconic beach shacks, for instance, have had their Goan character diluted with non-Goan management.
Property developers have also swooped in to launch large-scale residential projects, often in eco-sensitive locations, which has raised environmental concerns. These properties are also being sold mostly to outsiders from Goa, which has changed the character of the villages they are located in.
Many of these residential facilities, such as villas, end up being used as guest houses for tourists, bypassing stricter requirements for waste management and other pollution control norms that commercial hotels must follow, said Travel and Tourism Association of Goa president Jack Sukhija.
He told ST that new tourist facilities should come with proper roads to access the property and waste management, besides adequate water and electricity supply.
“We need corrective steps to slow down the tourism industry or change the direction it is headed in. It cannot just be rampant building and development. We have to see for whom all this capacity is being built... to ensure that locals benefit adequately and that the land also retains its flavour,” added Sukhija.
Conscious of the growing problems around mass tourism, the Goa state government has initiated measures to mitigate its impact on the state’s people and its fragile ecology, but progress has been slow.
It has proposed a new piece of legislation that aims to “protect, preserve and retain the natural and cultural heritage of the state”.
Among the changes proposed in the draft Bill are incentives for sustainable tourism and a “sustainability” fee for tourism enterprises. The latter has proved controversial with members of the tourism industry opposing the additional financial burden on them and questioning if the funds collected would be used judiciously.
The state is also attempting to draw tourists to Goa’s lesser explored parts such as its hills and forests, away from the coastline.
A “Hinterland Tourism Policy” is in the works that is expected to enhance tourism in these areas by improving infrastructure and developing sustainable tourism practices.
Goa’s hinterland includes the Western Ghats mountain range that stretches along India’s western coast and extends to the southern tip of the country’s peninsula. A biodiversity hot spot, the Western Ghats region was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2012.
As Goa also opens up these areas to tourists, Barreto noted it is important not to repeat past mistakes that have led to overcrowding and littering at several popular beaches, causing them to lose their appeal.
“If the super sensitive ecosystems of the forests are also trampled over, then we are in for trouble,” he added.
Meanwhile, Fernandes and others have had some peace in recent weeks as volume levels have quietened following their five-day protest in August. But Goa’s residents have promised to hit the roads again if the loud music returns. - The Straits Times/ANN
