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Empty Beach Shacks, Cancelled Chartered Flights: How Covid Ravaged Goa s Tourism this Year
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Coronavirus cast a long shadow over tourism in Goa as the coastal state normally bustling with domestic and foreign tourists tried to cope with effects of the pandemic. Goa witnessed perhaps the worst tourist season with international chartered flights cancelled, beach shacks wearing empty looks and local businesses like taxi and bike rentals, dependent on this industry, suffering a body blow.
The coronavirus-induced has cost the state s tourism industry Rs 1,000 crore in earnings, Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. A report by the state tourism department and a private consultancy firm said Goa s tourism industry may have suffered loss of between Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,200 crore and job losses in the range of 35 per cent to 58 per cent due to the pandemic.
Hot coals, red eyes
December 17, 2020
Not done or dusted: Goa’s uneasy relationship with coal dust and its telling effects on health have spurred many citizens to join the ongoing protests - IMAGE COURTESY: SAVE MOLLEM CAMPAIGN
Not done or dusted: Goa’s uneasy relationship with coal dust and its telling effects on health have spurred many citizens to join the ongoing protests - IMAGE COURTESY: SAVE MOLLEM CAMPAIGN×
For the past nine months, the people of Goa have been dealing with more than just the pandemic. The announcement of three infrastructure projects has doubled their fears of pollution caused by coal handling, apart from putting a question mark on the future of a biodiversity hotspot. From taking the knee to running social media campaigns, the average Goan is determined to do what it takes to keep the coal dust from settling in their lungs and homes. A report
Prashant Miranda s artwork for the campaign. | Prashant Miranda.
The great Konkani laureate Balakrishna Bhagwant (Bakibab) Borkar once sought to explain why his tiny homeland of Goa has produced so many consequential artists. They range from the Hindustani classical vocalists Kesarbai Kerkar and Mogubai Kurdikar to the slew of jazz musicians – along with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle – who consolidated “the sound of Bollywood”, as well as essential modernist painters like Francis Newton Souza, Vasudeo Gaitonde, and his cherished friend, the Shantiniketan exemplar Angelo da Fonseca.
Borkar credited this disproportionate effloresence to “the significance of Goa’s natural beauty”. He said, “So comfortably set up in such a rich aesthetic setting, the Goan consciously and unconsciously absorbs Nature’s varied promptings through all the pores. In the festival of colours and shapes and sounds and smells and touches and tastes afforded by the natur