A very timely and thought provoking article by Mr. Raja which will be of immense relevance to tomorrow’s event by COHERA and the District Administration.
Tourism is both a boon and a curse. Responsible Tourism is the dire need of the hour with strong checks and balances. The recommendations made in this article are based on sound principles of Prevention being Better than Cure!
– CLN Newsdesk
At the outset, let me bail myself by asserting that the title of this write-up amounts to reconciling the irreconcilable. As Aristotle contended in his ‘either-or’ premise, one can either promote tourism or protect the environment, not both. The best that one can hope for is a via media where both the extremes are avoided.
Tourism comes with its attendant risk of ecological damage. And if Indian tourists are involved, then tourism virtually amounts to creating a god awful mess. A typical Indian adopts a very unusual approach towards cleanliness where cleanliness amounts to keeping one’s house clean and to hell with rest!
It’s very difficult to control this kind of behavior because there’s no solid legal basis at national level ro punish people for littering. We do have IPC 278 that reads as follows:
Whoever voluntarily vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighborhood or passing along a public way, shall be punished with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.
As usual, our IAS babus have inserted words and clauses that provide enough loopholes for their brothers in the legal fraternity to exploit.
Here for instance, the burden of proving that the act of the litterer was ‘voluntary’ and that such littering made ‘it noxious to the health of persons’ devolves on the person trying to prosecute the litterer. Even if one were to persevere, what would one achieve? A paltry fine of max ₹500; mere peanuts!
On top of that, IPC 278 is not a cognizable offense; it is a non-cognizable and bailable offense. This means that the police cannot arrest someone for this offense without a warrant and require permission from a magistrate to investigate.
Considering all these impediments, it is almost impossible to punish a person for littering. Well, there’s a way out, but it requires concerted and coordinated efforts on our part.
Municipal laws can be put in place prescribing substantial fines for littering. But such laws have to be uniformly passed by all municipal bodies in Kodagu viz, Grama Panchayats, Mandala Panchayats and the Kodagu Jilla Parishat. Otherwise there will be jurisdictional issues. If one mandala Panchayat enacts the law but neighboring Grama Panchayats don’t, it will be very difficult to enforce the laws.
And the laws should be simply worded to reduce loopholes. Standard IAS nonsense like notwithstanding, in lieu of, provided futher that and similar bombasts and their vernacular equivalents should be strictly avoided.
As such, we’d require concerted action and a social movement that forces the Panchayats to act. In a democracy, legislation isn’t enough. The members of the public have to ensure that clearly enforceable rules are published by the authorities concerned to enable the executive arm to effectively enforce the laws.
Again, pressure has to be brought to bear on the DC, ZP Chief, SP, all the five Tahsildars, local police SHOs etc to take prompt action to punish litterers on the spot.
One may ask why not just get the Jilla Parishad to pass the law. It would be better to involve all the Panchayats because, when an offence is committed in a particular village or town, there’ll be Panchayat members nearby who could be called upon to throw their weight behind the team responsible for enforcement of the rules.
There should be a series of video cameras on all major roads and also tourist hotspots whose feeds should be monitored by AI enabled systems that would notice the violation and inform the nearest enforcement team. The information should also he shared with all border check posts of Kodagu to prevent the offenders from leaving the district.
Knowing the Indian public, most offenders would create a ruckus and refuse to pay. The effectiveness of a rule depends on its enforcement. The rules should clearly define the procedure for handling dissent.
If an offender refuses to pay up, he/she should be apprehended. As tourists mostly travel by vehicles, a towing arrangement has to be put in place in several areas. And hefty towing charges should be added to the fine even if the offender pays up before the vehicle is towed away.
If it’s a cab, the cabbie would force the offender to pay up to avoid his cab being towed away. If it’s the offenders vehicle, he/she would pay up fine and towing charges to avoid towing away of the vehicle.
In all cases where the offender refuses to pay up at the first instance, the matter should be settled only at the police station having jurisdiction over the spot where the offence happened. At the police station the offender should be made to admit the offence and undertake not to repeat the same.
Such videos should be circulated in visual and social media to name and shame such persons.
Vested interests, especially politicians, regional chauvinists, resort and homestay operators would try to undermine law enforcement. We need a strong mass movement to discourage such attempts.
It is necessary that all resorts, homestays etc should sensitize guests on their responsibilities and mandatorily make them sign a document in token of having read, understood and agreed to abide by the local laws.
Initially, it would be a good idea to have volunteers handing over pamphlets at border checkpoints sensitizing visitors on the legal requirements to be complied with while staying in or passing through the district.
If the enforcement mechanism works satisfactorily, word of mouth warnings by visitors would ensure that visitors in future would excercise care to avoid committing such offences.
All this may appear to be a tall order at first sight. But Newtons first law of motion would kick in and smoothen out things. Remember, inertia applies not just to objects at rest but also to those that are in a state of motion. All you need is a initial little force to get things moving. Thereafter, inertia will ensure that things would move without further effort from us.
Raja P Areyada
Retired Banker. Expertise in International Finance, Payment systems, Treasury automation, Trading platform development & deployment, Information security, Risk Management, Financial Inclusion, IT software development.
Wide array of interests including Philosophy, Quantum Mechanics, Macro Economics and Parapsychology.
A powerful reminder that cleanliness and civic responsibility cannot be outsourced. It’s time we stop blaming systems and start respecting the places we visit, including the spaces outside our homes.
Tourism and Daily Living Habits without accountability is 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞.
Very well written article making a strong case for monitoring the volume of tourists and their behaviour.
The Garbage issue has become a real menace at all tourist locations and Kodagu seems to attract the worst type – abetted by the belief that tourists can drink, splash around/bathe wherever they want. Clearly an unacceptable situation.
COHERA and the District Administration should form a “Task Force” to implement strict fines – similar to traffic fines, linked to the registration numbers of their vehicles. Human psychology is such that once the administration is seen to be tough, people obey. The same lot abide by all the rules when they travel to places like Singapore, Thailand, Switzerland and so on. The sad truth is that locals are as culpable in their garbage disposal habits. A lot needs to be changed.
Maybe similar to police alerts that are made for exigencies, there should be a protocol by which mobile alerts are received by all those who are entering Kodagu.
CONCLUSION – urgent action is required to arrest the out-of-control situation. Else the resources will be consumed like a locust attack.
Even before we enact time consuming laws
and codify rules (good for the long term), merely putting up “dummy” notices that the area is under CCTV surveillance and litterers will be fined a hefty amount (not just 500!) will mitigate the problem to a large extent in the short term
A very well-articulated and practical perspective. The issue of littering and environmental neglect in tourist destinations like Kodagu needs exactly this kind of clear-eyed analysis and actionable plan. The emphasis on local-level legislation, public pressure, and accountability is crucial laws mean little without community participation and enforcement. The idea of using technology and public awareness campaigns, could indeed make “Responsible Tourism” a reality rather than just a slogan.
A timely and thought provoking article by Mr. Raja, especially relevant to tomorrow’s event by COHERA and the District Administration. The recommendations made in this article rest on a simple yet profound principle “prevention is better than cure”.
At the outset it may seem impossible to reconcile tourism and environmental protection. One may either promote tourism or protect nature, but rarely both. Yet, the real challenge today lies in finding the balanced path where enjoyment of nature doesn’t come at the cost of defiling it.
The efforts of COHERA and the District Administration to instill civic discipline deserve applause. Balancing tourism with cleanliness isn’t just good governance, it’s an act of respect to the land that we have inherited and has sustained us for Millenia. We have a responsibility to hand it over to the future generations better than we found it!!