Now disaster tourism takes over in Kodagu district

Now disaster tourism takes over in Kodagu district

The influx of nature loving tourists during weekends is not much to be seen these days,thanks to the man made calamity added with exaggerated versions of coverage in all forms of mainstream media.But that's only a superfluous part of the overall picture as outside people are now making a beeline to have a look at the sites recently devastated due to heavy downpour and landslips.In other words disaster tourism is now in place in the district which was unheard of so far!
The existence of such disaster tourism is also acknowledged by the major players into the various forms of tourism that have been prevailing here since a couple of decades.KM Karumbaiah,Founder Secretary of Coorg Home Stay Association do admit the new type of tourism that's taken over the hilly terrains of late.
He laments:Thanks to selfie craze,disaster tourism has taken over and people are now being taken to have a look at the tragic spots which have rendered the inhabitants homeless and landless.It's the unrealistic portrayal by the media which has led to this sort of piquant situation.
According to him:In comparison to what has been misreported in the media and taking into consideration the geographical region in mind it's only about 2-5 percent of the district which has been badly hit.If nothing has happened in Virajpet taluk the extent of damage in Somwarpet and Madikeri taluks is to the extent of five percent in both the taluks.
But for Mandalpatti and Abbi falls all other regular tourist destinations in the district are intact.But the way it was projected in the media was as if the whole district has been submerged in water and fully covered with mud heaps due to landslides,regrets KM Karumbaiah.
Baboo Somaiah is an ex serviceman owning an coffee estate and is also running a stay home facility in his house atop a terrifically elevated hillock.Although unmarried he's a large family consisting of his staff and labourers apart from a variety of guests including the renowned film stars,musicians and software professionals,to name a few.
Interestingly even after serving the Indian Army for 35 years he continues to live a very simple life and claims not to have touched even a drop of liquor till date.He becomes angry when you question him about the media coverage of the recent onslaught of nature here.
Baboo Somaiah blasts:About 60-70 percent of media projection is bullshit!He's also firm on his stance over the continuation of stay home facilities and puts forth his arguments this way:Illegal stay homes shouldn't be allowed.We Coorg people are specialised in hospitality not only here but elsewhere across the world and these new ventures in the form of stay homes are the new lifeline for small and medium coffee growers.
If one can get Rs 1-1.5 lakh per annum from coffee the proportion of income from stay home facilities could be to the range of Rs 5/6 lakhs. For the last one month there have been no guests.But maintenance cost will not come down as a result of such a situation.We need to retain the staff irrespective of the business or no business.
On the other hand KM Karumbaiah argues:Home stay facility initially came into practice due to fall of prices in coffee,increasing cost of wages and labour problems.To compensate the income due to the reasons mentioned the coffee planters envisaged plans to add up by novel ways of hospitality.
The guests could taste the local delicacies by staying with the hosts and were also taken to sight seeing places.By such ventures it's not just the stay home owner who was benefited but many others in the chain also.For instance the local vegetable shop owner,grocery shop owner and local bodies also reaped from these activities.The local economy has been flourishing apart from employment generation opportunities,direct and indirect,he stresses.
But you ask him about the number of home stays in the district and the legal one's his reply is an indication of the paradoxical situation on the ground:About 400 stay home facilities have been registered with the Tourism department but the total number of them in the district seems to be around 4,000!
When the coffee planters gave a fillip to the home stay facilities they started doing so by converting a couple or three rooms within the house for such activities.But due to increasing number of guests many more rooms were added to the existing structures.
In all such homes even the hosts stayed back with the guests and by and large they weren't out and out commercial activities.But these days things have changed for outright commercial purposes and people have started taking houses on rent and utilising the premises for home stay facilities.So the once non commercial entities have now been transformed into commercial ventures,complain many a planter here.
Many a touts have cropped up due to the financial gain these activities bring.There are any number of instances wherein the tourists who wish to come to our office for inquiring the stay home facilities are literally hijacked by the greedy auto drivers who take them to their own homes converting the small houses into places for commercial activities.complains KM Karumbaiah.
There are also isolated cases of many people originally from Kerala taking stay homes for rent and misusing the same for all sort of illegal activities including flesh trade.This is a disturbing trend giving the activity a very bad name.The government should enforce rules and also implement them strictly if these activities have to continue for long,he pleads.
He says it's not too late to act as it's also the interests of the government which are at stake now due to illegal mushrooming of stay homes.
Apart from pro and counter arguments on the continuation of stay home facilities so far there's has no indication of it's mind on behalf of the state government in the absence of clear cut guidelines over regulation of the same.It's been mentioned in the home stay circles that Priyanka Kharge,who's the tourism minister in the previous Congress government had evinced enough interest for regulation of the stay home facilities.But his portfolio in the present alliance government has changed and the ground situation remains where it stopped earlier!

-Manohar Yadavatti

blog handled by Infinity Techsyst Dharwad,Karnataka,India