Letter on Navhind Times dated 29th July,2005 by one Tony D'Cruz, UK: Protecting the Environment. Having been in Goa for the past seven months researching material on social mores and customs of the Konkan people and having been a regular reader of NT, I am amazed at the total lack of interest shown by Goans about their environment. The Calangute market after the rains is a veritable pigsty. I am informed by local yokels that Goa and Goans still depend on cess pits and soak pits. The countless ersatz resorts and hotels simply allow their waste to contaminate groundwater sources. Most of the wells in Calangute and Candolim are polluted. Malaria and filaria and hepatitis virus infections are common. Yet the Goans like those headwaiters in ersatz seudo star eateries seem to think they are the greatest. The low budget tourist comes here because he cannot afford to go elsewhere. Kerala, Pondicaherry, Rajasthan, get a better class of tourists. Not Goa. Here one finds the dregs of western society. Are you people so dense so as to believe that this tiny state is a favoured tourist destination? Check the major travel and tourism related websites and one w i ll find that Goa is the cheapest destinationin the world. There are hundreds of students both young and old who wtill come to India for its great culture, its spiritualityand these people know more about India than the Goan. The only thing the average Goan knows is the route to Dubai where he or she could work for some dumb camel-herder or to the restaurant and toilet section of a leisure cruise liner where he holds a job. I have travelled the length and the breadth of India and think this is a fabulous country and the only blot on the landscape is this dingy, pathetic, little state. I do believe that it is time to have a grip and start cleaning up the backyard. Improve educational standards, roads, sewerage and drainage facilities and improved roads.
