K A Ramakrishna Murthy / Deccan Herald
Udupi, May 30: The sea whispers, beckoning people to its side. Many stand, staring endlessly at the waves rolling towards them. The vast expanse of water enchants man, giving expression to some hidden emotion or feeling. Its music bewitches him to leave whatever he is doing and submit to the melody, even on a scorching afternoon.
It is the same, whether it is the Juhu in Mumbai or Marina in Chennai. The sea is not just a water body but something more in these places. But what about the Malpe beach in Udupi?
The mind refuses to contemplate upon things, the waves do not sooth frazzled nerves; the soul song does not burst forth here. Sure, the area is dotted with swaying palms. But how to negotiate the sands and stand close to the sea, in communion?
Udupi is a district blessed with abundant natural resources including a crystal-clear shoreline and palm groves dotted throughout the district, hugging close to the beaches — enough to distract the sternest tourist. But the attempt to utilise the tourism potential, falls way below expectation.
Udupi is famous for its ubiquitous Udupi Hotels, a gastronomic phenomenon that serves up hot, fluffy idlis and crisp dosas. Several ambitious entrepreneurs have tasted success abroad by opening Udupi hotels all over. Their entrepreneurial skills are a byword the world over. Yet Malpe, an important part of Udupi, seems to have passed all the progress by, content with the way it has existed.
The Udupi Zilla Utsav is celebrated in a manner similar to that of a State festival. Suggestions and ideas on developing tourism in the district are bandied about in numerous seminars and conventions held during the occasion. However, most of them have remained ‘paper tigers’ with no signs of implementation.
True, Udupi boasts famous shrines, a coastline particularly alluring to ‘people from above the ghats’. Most tourists prefer visiting the beach and the St Mary’s Island located nearby.
But the stench of rotting fish greets the eager traveler much before he has reached Malpe. Braving the risk of picking one’s way through the heaps of garbage and to reach the waves and play along can be very hard upon the hapless, unsuspecting tourist. He has to keep his eyes fixed to the ground instead of enjoying the sights a beach offers.
The whole town is drenched with the stench; the open canal and drains surrounding the Malpe harbour are polluted with sewerage. The stench is unbearable. The drains in the town are mostly clogged with plastic bottles and bags, not allowing the sewer water to flow through. This is not all.
Fisherwomen dry raw fish right next to these drains in an unhygienic manner. The fish are washed and then spread across torn fishing nets to dry, naturally attracting hordes of flies. The fishing harbour also wears a crowded look with scenes of the catch getting off-loaded, people competing with each other to buy the loads in auction being a normal sight. Again, the concept of hygiene is absent here. While fish are sorted out on one side of the auction site, they are put in cold storage boxes to be transported at another and at yet another corner big fish are cleaned and cut into small pieces for the local sale.
The tourists are dependent on this harbour to be ferried to St Mary’s Island. It is another matter that those who come here for the first time learn the error of their ways and do not repeat the mistake of coming again. Let alone the foreign tourist, even local tourists are hard pressed here. Is it any wonder then, that tourism has failed miserably?
No plan to keep the town clean has been chalked up. Nobody has bothered to create awareness among people living on the coast the importance of maintaining cleanliness. The place hardly has a toilet constructed under one of the government schemes.
It is not necessary to release water from the open canal and drains into the sea; processed water can be reused for various purposes. A small fish processing unit can also be set up, hopefully liberating the town from the stench. A clean ambience is conducive for increase in tourist traffic as well as generating employment to the locals.
It is not that there has been no attempt made towards achieving this goal. The State government deciding to build a tourist hotel, the construction work stopping half-way, paving the way for a haven of illegal and immoral activities and the government finally handing over the structure to a private party - Malpe has seen it all. Now the place has been converted into a posh five-star hotel, attracting IT tourists by the horde.
In a similar vein, the government envisaged a park with musical fountain alongside the Malpe beach and formulated a Rs 40 crore plan and awarded a contract for the same. The contractor built an enclosure, obtained the full amount and vanished!
St Mary’s Island is a rock formation, eight kilometers away from the Malpe coast. With an area of about one square mile, this uninhabited rock island is an excellent example of nature’s wizardry. Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on this island in 1498 and called it ‘El Padrone D Santa Maria’. A remarkable feature of this island is the hexagonal pillar formation of the rocks, not found anywhere else in India. The Centre has declared this unique island a National Geo-scientific Monument. Sadly, the place is not clean.
If only the beach, the fishing harbour and the island are cleaned and beautified, there is hope of tourists returning to one of the paradises of nature. “A committee headed by the deputy commissioner will be constituted to look into ways of making Udupi a hot tourist destination. A comprehensive plan will be formulated and a proposal will be sent to the government. In this regard, a meeting will be called shortly,” says Udupi-in-Charge Deputy Commissioner R Shantaraj.
Meanwhile, the Malpe coastline continues to suffer silently.