BENGALURU: In what can be called a concern towards environment, Chaitanya Hegde, a junior research fellow from NIMHANS has worked for eight months to capture the life of people and environment in Gokarna, which has changed due to high influx of tourists.
Chaitanya has put up a photo exhibition at Azim Premji University, which is hosting the annual climate festival, Coasts and Oceans of Life.
He said, “I chose to exhibit the transition seen in Gokarna because it is my native place and what better way to educate school students and communities about the impact of tourism and building resorts destroying forests and mountains in large scale. Recently, there was a landslide in Gokarna, however the sad part was locals and the government denied the fact that it was due to illegal quarrying and building of resorts and hotels but blamed it on monsoon.”
He added, “In the past few years, Gokarna has drawn lakhs of tourists as Goa has become expensive. As a result, the architecture has also changed over a period of time. Though Gokarna is a humid place, the houses were designed in a way that it remained cool, especially the Kaavi paintings or art made out of cow dung on the walls helped houses remain cool throughout the year.”
Through his photos, Chaitanya has shown that the resorts and hotels have failed to mimic these Kaavi paintings and have installed ACs. He explained, “It is disheartening to see how old houses that had features of sustainability have been replaced by bohemian style hotels.
The changes have been drastic and they appear irreversible not only through changing architecture but even the profession of people. The beautiful nature, steep slopes of houses with Mangalore tiles have been replaced by modern architecture that rarely takes cultural sensitivities into consideration.”
In one of the pictures, Chaitanya has captured untreated sewage waste or water flowing into open drains which has become a breeding place for mosquitoes and this in turn flows into rivers and seas leaving them polluted.
When asked on what needs to be done to prevent landslides or natural disasters from occurring in the future, he said, “Earlier, tourism was not a mode of earning livelihood for natives of Gokarna. However, now a lot of people have changed their profession and stepped into various business that cater to tourists. All I want to say is tourism can be encouraged but the landscape of Gokarna must be left as it is. Or else one should not be surprised if there are bigger disasters in the near future impacting the lives of local people.”
