Panjim (Goa): When Arvind Untawale retired from the National Institute of Oceanography, he planned long walks on the beach, feeling the sand beneath his feet.
But today, as he walks along the Miramar beach in Panjim, he also fears a loss.
"Climate change has started. There might be sea level rise, then all the low lying areas like beaches - not only in Goa and in India - but everywhere all over the world are going to be affected," says he.
And Goa's 105 km long coastline is at risk. The Center for Future Studies have included Goa alongside the Great Barrier Reef as one of the top ten destinations that might just be washed off the tourist map by 2020. Experts already know whom to blame.
Says Goa's Tourism Director, Sanjit Rodricks, "Many times complaints come to us that shacks have been set up on the dunes, but we're taking action and the court has even ruled that we have to take permission from the coastal zone management authority to locate the areas where shacks should be put up."
However, government action is, as always, is too little and too late.
Says the Chief Secretary of the Goa government, J P Singh, "If sand dunes have been tampered with, we will have to take the help of ecological experts and restore the area. The court will have to decide what action has to be taken against illegal constructions."
One look at the political agendas this election and it's pretty evident that environment issues are something that NGOs and the common man is concerned about.
But just a cursory mention of environmental issues in election manifestos leaves one with the sinking feeling that the next five years is going to be no different.
Little will be done in the end, it seems, to address the fears of those like Professor Untawale.
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