Panaji: Goa’s erosion-affected beaches are in for good news. Union Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi has allotted Rs.50 crore for fighting the problem at its prime beaches, which are gradually being submerged, reportedly due to global warming and tourism overkill.
“Chiranjeevi has allotted Rs.50 crore to the Goa tourism ministry to save Goa’s beaches from erosion,” state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar told reporters here Friday.
Erosion has emerged as a major threat for Goa, which largely depends on tourism as a major source for government revenue.
The state sees over 2.6 million tourists visiting the state annually, but the same tourism as well as global warming has been triggering ruin as far as beaches are concerned.
A report by the state water resources department, says “disturbance of sand accretion and beach degeneration” caused by the movement of hundreds of thousands of tourists on Goa’s beaches was one of the causes of erosion.
The other cause which has been spelled out is global warming.
Government data suggests that over 25 percent of Goa’s coastline is already under threat of erosion. The water resources department, which has been entrusted with the task of restoring the eroding beaches, claims that erosion was a global phenomenon and that it was doing the best to arrest the sand slide.