KOCHI: As the twin landslides at Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad district shocked Kerala, two terms that have been attracting attention are ‘dark tourism’ and ‘disaster tourism’.
The former gained attention following a tweet by the Kerala Police, which asked people to refrain from sightseeing and engaging in dark tourism in light of the Wayanad tragedy. Wayanad district collector Meghashree D R also asserted that what’s happening is a rescue operation, not a space for disaster tourism.
But is that a trend in Kerala? What triggered such a trend? TNIE tries to decode these terms and the trend.
Soon after news of the landslides broke, many people made a beeline to the disaster zone allegedly under various pretexts just for a visit. Of late, such a trend has been seen whenever a major disaster happens in the state prompting debates with experts pointing towards both positive and negative aspects.
“Dark tourism has been happening for quite some time,” says Rajesh P R, a tour guide. “Various sites that witnessed terrible incidents resulting in many deaths have always been on the itinerary of tourists,” he says. For examples Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Cellular Jail in Andaman Nicobar Islands, Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The term and the phenomenon have been trending globally since shows such as Chernobyl came out around five years ago.
However, there is a huge difference between visiting a place that had witnessed a tragic incident decades ago and touring an area where a disaster had struck mere days ago, says Prasanth Vasudev, former deputy director of tourism. “It is very wrong to go sightseeing in a place which just suffered a tragic incident,” he says.
“At a time when emotions of the affected people are at their rawest, going around clicking photographs, making videos and then posting them on social media is intrusive and inhumane. It might be okay to visit such a place months after the relief and rehabilitation initiatives are completed, it might even help the local economy. However, sightseeing when the wounds are fresh is nothing short of cruel,” he adds.
Recently, Tourism and PWD Minister P A Mohamed Riyas said the government won’t promote such dark tourism or disaster tourism. His statement came after the state government was notified of disaster tourism to the landslide-hit areas in Wayanad. He even urged the public to refrain from travelling to Meppadi panchayat, after getting complaints about people visiting survivors’ houses and clicking pictures and videos.
A tourism official in Kannur shares an incident he came across.
“It was just a couple of days after the landslides struck. A bunch of people were visiting places where a natural disaster had happened. When landslides happened in Meppadi panchayat, the police had barricaded the border that Kannur shares with Wayanad to prevent the flow of people hell-bent on visiting the sites to satiate their curiosity.”
A tourism professional from Wayanad highlights how the arrival of those on a sightseeing mission to the disaster-hit areas causes more chaos.
“It also happened during the Puthumala landslide in 2019. It was a mess. However, this time around the state government departments ran like well-oiled machinery. The police and the Army had placed various restrictions to stop outsiders from hindering the operations,” says Vancheeswaran K R, president of the Wayanad Tourism Organisation (WTO). He too agrees with Prasanth and Rajesh. “Visit after many years,” he stresses.
Social media effect
Many stakeholders explain the snowballing effect of social media, the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) adds to the mad rush. The videos posted by the vloggers also are a reason for the unprecedented flow of people to such disaster sites, says Vancheeswaran. “Puthumala landslide site is still a hit among the vloggers. They can be seen making videos pointing out various things like the machinery buried in the soil or the parts of a car sticking out. For them, all that these sites present are opportunities to get more hits or views to increase the number of followers. They don’t care about the sentiments or emotions of the people who have been affected by the incident,” he says. He asks vloggers to be more compassionate.
According to Vancheeswaran, since restrictions had been placed at Mudakkai and Chooralmala, the arrival of such people has come down. He feels the state government departments learnt a lesson from the Puthumala and other natural disasters. “However, there have been some murmurings of dissent too, especially among those who had been prevented from going to ground zero.”
Prasanth says it is Malayalis who are engaged in dark tourism in the state.
“Look at the vloggers making videos of these sites. They are Keralites. And their audience are also Keralites. Once the viewers watch these videos, their curiosity will be piqued and they go en-mass on a trip to these places. The result? Mass tourism which is neither beneficial to the local people nor the environment,” he says.
Still sensitive
Nobody was allowed into the relief camps, Prasanth says. “Nor was anyone allowed to the higher reaches of the landslide-hit areas. And if people did arrive posing as relief workers distributing food packets, it would have been good since they might have contributed towards overcoming food supply shortage,” he adds.
However, the terrain in these sites is still not conducive for travel. “Only those who know the area can go to these places in Wayanad. Even on normal days, those coming in from the other places, won’t be able to drive around,” explains Vancheeswaran.
And the trails left behind by the jeeps that make multiple trips to the glass bridge at 900 Kandi in Wayanad? These trails become conduits for the rainwater, Prasanth explains. “They turn into a new pathway for the sludge and debris to flow when a landslide happens.”
The time is nigh to enforce the Tourism Trade Act and start a safe Wayanad campaign, he says.
The mind factor
According to Dr Arun B Nair, professor of psychiatry at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, the reason for dark tourism is “narcissism.” It is a way of thrill-seeking, he says. “They click pictures and shoot videos of themselves at these places and post them on social media to show off their bravery. They are not bothered that they might be hurting the emotions of those affected by the tragedy,” he says. Then some people visit historical places that have witnessed tragedies, he says. “They do so to impress the public with their so-called knowledge of history,” he adds.