18th June 2013: When the threshold was crossed, and the environment retaliated, it was only a minor trailer of what could happen to the entire world – we would be lying still or being swiped away with it. All our technologies, weapons to fight the war, everything would succumb to it while Nature would stand still mocking at us reminding us of all the hints it dropped, of all the times its warned. This juxtaposed with the advancements that we are carrying out in the name of development are nothing but a ruckus that we are creating for ourselves, a mess that would be hard to clean. The 2013 tragedy of Uttarakhand or the uninterrupted forest fires in Australia is all just hints being dropped commanding us to stop and think of alternatives, think of ways to restore what is being destroyed and correct our folly. The biggest economic boon to a country is its tourism, but if kept unchecked, then it can soon turn into a bane. Every place has a threshold limit to it – the capacity that it can hold given the number of natural resources it contains to nurture the life in and around it and by experience we do not just regard the homo sapiens as that would only be a tiny part of the huge party that we’ve invited ourselves! While relentless efforts have been made to check the harmful effects of tourism, only a little attention is being diverted to it when it comes to the coastal areas, primarily the beaches. The coastal ecosystem is the most complex one because it not only involves water, but it is the bridge that combines the soil with water. With the most significant biodiversity areas, these combine the sea – the mangroves – coral reefs. With more than half of the world’s population occupying the coastal areas, it is tremendously worrying even to imagine the damage that can be caused to the biome if another Tsunami or a coastal catastrophe occurs. The primary concern with unchecked coastal tourism can be broken down as follows –
- Loss of marine resources due to the destruction of coral reefs.
- Overfishing to meet the demands of an increasing population, including both static and that which increases as the number of visitors increases.
- Pollution of marine and freshwater resources by the leftover of the excursion carried out by you, them, and me!
- Soil degradation and loss of land resources would majorly include desertification due to excessive water use and overuse of fertilizers.
- Loss of cultural resources along with social disruption, due to the lack of social consciousness.
- Tourist infrastructure also mars the natural ecosystem and natural habitat of that area. When airports, marinas, resorts, and golf courses are built, they often have a more significant impact as the tourist developments are located at or near fragile marine ecosystems.
- The natural mangrove forests and seagrass meadows have been removed to create open beaches, thus causing the nesting sites for endangered marine turtles to be destroyed and disturbed by large numbers of tourists on the beaches. And then we talk about the dwindling turtle population! Ironic? Isn’t it?
- The cruise ships are like floating polluters. From causing the discharge of sewage in marinas to the lack of adequate garbage storage facilities. From ‘tarballs’ that remain at the sea surface, indicating oil discharge from ships to sometimes damaging the reefs by dropping anchors. Ships have caused damage to the coastal ecosystem continually.
Sustainable Practices –
- Creating an ecosystem where the sole responsibility lies on the one that polluted the seawater – it could be the vessels that discharged oil, the ship that caused the pollution, or the divers that disrupted the seaweeds and marine life.
- Recreation is enjoyable, but a check needs to be maintained – a threshold level should be decided for the beach. The number of people it can hold at one point in time should be governed. With this, care also needs to be taken to have special staff assigned for the regular cleanup drives. Awareness is best spread by setting examples for others.
- Fishing is undoubtedly the bread and butter for a lot of people living in and around the seashores, but if this is also left unchecked, then it will deplete the sea of its marine resources at a rate and cost that would not be possible to get back.
As practitioners and advocates of hope, it will be interesting to note how we can come up with solutions that re-build the soul of the sea. And from sea siege, call it out for some relief so that this time the coasts rejuvenate themselves while we stand at the bay gazing at it in awe.