The Hindu : Front Page : Beach tourism under threat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007
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Beach tourism under threat

Sib Kumar Das

High tide causes damage to Puri, Gopalpur beaches

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

ON THE EDGE: A view of the Gopalpur beach after high tide caused erosion. —

PURI : Catabolic effect of the high tide at beach resorts like Puri and Gopalpur has started to threaten the prospect of tourism. Sea waves have in the past week have crossed the high tide limits (HTL) and engulfed or washed away major portions of the extended marine drive in the Balia Panda area on the Puri coast. The waves have also destroyed a large number of houses of fishermen in the Pentakata area. The sea swallowed up around 200 metres of the coast during the last high tide.

Gopalpur has also been facing the wrath of erosive action of sea waves. Unlike Puri, at Gopalpur, hotels are located very close to the coast. At least four hotels have been damaged by the recent high tide at Gopalpur.

The Gopalpur light house, one of the oldest in the State, and a tourist attraction,is also under threat. In-charge of the light house Malay Biswas has written to the authorities, seeking measures to protect it as the guard wall of the light house has already been washed away. At Gopalpur, the rooms of hotels near the coast are being vacated by the officials during high tide. Turists are dissuaded not to venture into the sea as the beach has almost vanished at this resort. Tourists in Puri are also face to face to the violent action of the sea although here hotels are at a distance from the sea line. The remnants of illumination posts erected by the State Tourism Department, which were washed away by waves, can be seen on the beach.

Puri District R.R. Patnaik has sent a team of Works Department engineers to Digha in West Bengal to find out measures taken to protect the coastline.

Another team is expected to visit Goa for making similar studies.

Beach Protection Council (BPC) president Jagannath Bastia has approached R. Ramesh of Anna University to devise special means to check the erosion.

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