UDUPI/KARWAR: Two beaches in Karnataka — the Padubidri beach in Udupi district and Kasarkod beach in Uttara Kannada district — have secured the international Blue Flag recognition, awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education, an NGO in Denmark. Union Minister for Environment, Prakash Javadekar, made the announcement on Sunday.
They were recommended for the coveted tag based on the amenities available, cleanliness, safety, drinking water facilities, pollution-free atmosphere and generation of renewable energy. In July 2019, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, had identified 12 beaches across the country for the Blue Flag certification and announced a list of activities that will be permissible in their respective coastal regulation zones for that purpose.
Now, eight of them — Shivrajpur (Devbhumi Dwarka, Gujarat), Ghoghla (Daman and Diu), Kasarkod (Uttara Kannada, Karnataka), Padubidri (Udupi, Karnataka), Kappad (Kozhikode, Kerala), Rushikonda (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh), Golden (Puri, Odisha) and Radhanagar (Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar) beaches have been accorded the Blue Flag label.
Over the last two years, the Udupi district administration had been taking up work to secure the tag as a series of stringent environmental, safety and accessibility criteria had to be fulfilled. The certification will boost tourism, attracting tourists from foreign countries. Speaking to TNIE, Udupi Deputy Commissioner C G Jagadish said the district administration will seek additional funds of Rs 5.98 crore from the State Government to further improve amenities at the beach.
The district tourism department has so far spent Rs 8 crore, released by the Union Government, and Rs 2.68 crore released from the State Government, to create amenities at the beach. Chandrashekar, Assistant Director of the Tourism Department in Udupi told TNIE that several amenities will be provided for the benefit of tourists at Padubidri beach while environmental conservation will be given top priority.