Kerala Action Group Says “Irresponsible” Tourism Policy Encourages Land Speculation, Cronyism, Sex Tourism

For many years, the Tsunami-hit Indian state of Kerala with its beautiful backwaters and historic tourism resorts has been promoted as a top ecotourism destination. This year Kerala played host to a major international Responsible Tourism Conference, attracting speakers and participants from all over the globe.

Recently, however, local interests have posted a declaration on the internet decrying Kerala’s attitude to tourism and effectively alleging that Kerala’s tourism policy is hypocritical, at the very least.

The full text of the declaration is as follows:

We the representatives of peoples movements of Fisher folk, of Tribals, of Dalit communities and of Civil Society Organizations, as deliberated in the Convention against Irresponsible Tourism at Ernakulam, Kerala, India, on March 22nd 2008, declare our strong opposition to the intentions of the Kerala Tourism Department and tourism industrial lobbies to project Kerala as a global destination of Responsible Tourism while repeatedly failing to address and resolve the enormous problems caused by indiscriminate tourism development in the state.

We feel that the widely propagandized International Conference on Responsible Tourism that took place in Ernakulam, not surprisingly, failed to coherently address the real social, environmental and ethical impacts of tourism and did not seriously consider the concerns and anxieties of the local communities such as traditional fishers and indigenous people in the destinations. The conference in its very structures and deliberations was non-inclusive and remained inaccessible to majority of the real stakeholders and civil society organizations in Kerala. We strongly condemn government participation in such unilateral processes which are aimed to sanctify corporate irresponsibility in empty rhetoric and are clearly stage-managed to keep out the real victims of irresponsible tourism from debates, discussions and policy formulations. We ask: ‘To whom are the Government responsible and whose interests do the Government protect?’

In this context we would also like to point out that many of the recent legislative interventions in the tourism sector in Kerala such as Kerala Tourism (Protection and Conservation of Areas) Act, 2005 appropriate important constitutional powers (bestowed through amendments 73 & 74 of Indian Constitution) of the Local Self Governments (LSG), jeopardize the decentralization process and hugely reduce the scope for local participation at the decision making and implementation levels of tourism projects. We take this opportunity to reiterate our demand for the withdrawal of such anti-people legislations.

We strongly feel that the immediate responsibility of Kerala Tourism, hence, is to address and resolve the burning problems of the local communities who are displaced, disempowered and dispossessed from their livelihoods as a result of the unregulated and uncontrolled tourism activities in the state.

We would like to make it clear that the local communities will not play their expected roles of suppliers and dependents (the idea latent in the euphemism of ‘economic responsibility’) of the tourism industry. We wonder why the tourism lobby pretend to ignore the fact that Kerala has now become a net importer of its staple food rice and depends heavily on neighboring states for the everyday supplies of vegetables, meat, egg and milk.

In this context Tourism in Kerala, in order to have a legitimate claim to any semblance of responsibility that it projects for itself should show its willingness to do the following with immediate effect:

1. Revoke the declaration that designates four destinations in Kerala as Special Tourism Zones (STZ) which legitimizes the economic exploitation of local community resources by the tourism lobbies. We have pointed out on several occasions that the policy deeply undermines the decentralization processes in the state and attempt to concentrate all powers in a state level, authoritarian, bureaucratic committee with no meaningful representation of local/ regional elected representatives.

2. Stop the endless violations of the Coastal Regulation Zones (CRZ) in the name of tourism development. We urge Kerala Tourism to abandon its lobbying for the dilution of the legally powerful CRZ by converting it into a toothless Coastal Zone Management Plan favoring the industry and harming the interests of coastal communities.

3. Tourism Department has been deviously attempting to divert the funds set apart for the rehabilitation of the victims of Tsunami for tourism development. We urge the department to desist from such deceitful activities.

4. Regulate the number of house boats plying the Vembanad Lake and in the vicinity of interior villages like Kumarakom. Adopt effective strategies to contain the contamination of drinking water and pollution caused by the house boats. Delimit the timings and routes of houseboats to reduce the most resented intrusion into the privacy of local inhabitants. The routes should be determined causing no hindrance to inland fishers and lime shell pickers whose families depend on their sole incomes from these traditional occupations.

5. Evolve meaningful strategies to involve the local community and peoples organizations in decision making, planning and implementation of programmes and projects in tourism destinations. Abandon the present approach of exclusion and neglect by forming people’s committees creating a democratic space for communities to voice their concerns and intervene effectively to ameliorate the harmful impacts.

6. Periodic social auditing of all tourism projects and destinations should be done with the true participation of the various stake holders involved with special emphasis to the local community and organizations.

7. Stop the demeaning museumization of local cultures and art forms for tourist consumption violating the spiritual and aesthetic priorities and concerns of the local practitioners. Extend help and support for the conservation, preservation and promotion of traditional arts and crafts through institutionalized channels respecting customs, norms and value systems of local communities.

8. Stop the practice of initiating large scale tourism projects in protected forests and bio-diversity hot spots masqueraded as Eco-Tourism projects.

9. Restore the regulatory powers and responsibilities of the State Government and Local Self Government to control and contain unbridled tourism expansion programmes of the private sector.

10. Evolve credible institutional mechanisms for undertaking the social and economic cost–benefit analysis of government spending in tourism and tourism aiding projects to assess the claims regarding the gains in terms of revenue to the government and benefits to the local community and various other stake holders.

11. Regulate the burgeoning medical tourism sector in the state responsible for the proliferation of Ayurvedic massage centers which systematically promotes sex tourism, encourages pedophile activities and eroticizes tourism related service sector jobs. Regulate home-stays and help create awareness regarding its social implications.

12. The attempt to construct an Artificial Reef in Kovalam in the name of tourism should be stopped since it would destroy the livelihood options of scores of fish workers and may cause irreversible damages to the natural ecosystems of the near by coastal villages.

13. Restrict entry for tourists to ecologically sensitive zone of The Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of the very few existing homes of the Indian Tiger, a species facing extinction. Take effective steps to contain genetic robbery and constitute a Special Task Force to monitor and control tourist activities in the project areas.

14. Stop the move to transfer land taken away from local communities in the name of development (such as land for the air port in Nedumbassery) for Golf Tourism, an activity that does not suite our environs and clearly causes extensive ground water depletion and environmental destruction.

15. At a time when Kerala is facing acute shortages of rice and vegetables, stop encouraging conversion of paddy fields and reclamation of backwaters for tourism activities.

16. The illegal occupation and fencing off of backwater and coastal areas by the Hotel industry is continuing unabated and immediate steps should taken to stop this practice facilitated by unethical bureaucratic connivance. Government should evict the illegal occupants and restore its communal ownership.

17. Construction of tourism resorts in backwaters in river banks areas should not be allowed. Existing resorts should be made accountable for the discharge of waste into these waters according to polluter pay principle and making it mandatory for them to use eco-friendly waste management and processing systems like bio gas.

18. Take immediate legislative measures to restrict indirect foreign investments in landed properties for tourism resort construction through surrogate land speculators.

19. Revoke The Kerala Local Authorities Entertainments Tax (Amendment) Bill 2007 which purports to take away the powers of the Local Self Governments to fix and collect tax from tourism related entertainment industries like Water Theme Parks.

20. Constitute a Peoples Commission with meaningful representation of all stake holders and active participation of civil society movements to help uncover the real facts about Kerala Tourism.

The policy of the government should be to help improve the basic living conditions of people and protect their livelihood options. The current policies in the tourism sector are set to promote the interests of capital and an elite minority who benefits from the global neo liberal economic order. There are numerous examples before us to corroborate this position. The most recent example in Kerala is the aborted move by the Government to forcibly evict the illegal occupation of government land and forest land in the hills in Munnar, by the tourism industry. We strongly believe that the Government should not be cowed down by the sheer economic might and political clout of the tourism lobby in the state.

We are not asking for any favor from the Tourism Department or the Tourism Industry. The demands we raise are the legitimate rights of every responsible citizen in the state. We would also like to make it clear that caricaturing our position as ‘anti-tourists’ is a way far from the truth. Our opposition is directed against the harmful consequences of irresponsible tourism that hampers the interests of local communities, displace, dispossess and disempower marginalized groups, compromise human rights, disregard principles of fair living and violate the privacy and moral economy of the people in the destinations.

For Various Peoples Movements

Chair Person : Justice K.P.Radha Krishna Menon

Moderator : C.R.Neelakandan

Kerala Tourism Watch : Geo Jose

Solidarity Youth Movement : S.M.Sainudeen

Coastal Fisher Women Forum : Magline Peter

K.C.Y.M : Sony Pavelil

Ecological end Cultural Collective : T.K.Sudeer Kumar

Kerala Congress Secular : M.N.Giri

Independent Fish Workers Union : V.D.Satheesan

Equations : Saroop Roy

Anweshi : K.Ajitha

Kabani : Sumesh Mangalassery

Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi : Purushan Eloor

PUCL : Jacob Lasser

Janakeeya Prathirodha Samithi : Sreekumar (EKM)

Keraleeyam, Thrissur : K.J.Robin

Rajagiri School of Social sciences, Ernakulum : Fr.Prasanth

Related News Stories: