Ask you average Joe in the street in any major Western country to name two or three countries that might truly be said to represent heaven on earth and (assuming that you were fortunate to ask a Joe with even the basic knowledge of World geography) one of the answers that you would most likely get would be Goa.

Goa is an area of some 3700 square kilometers on the West coast of India in the region known as Konkan, and is famed for its stunning beaches, its world heritage architecture and for its rare flora and fauna.

With a history traceable back to the 3rd century BC, and with several centuries of Portuguese colonization clearly reflected in the culture, religious beliefs and cuisine of the region, Goa has long been an idyllic vacation destination for tourists from out friend Joe’s home land!

However, what was once a low-budget tourist haven is now facing a crisis, caused, at least to some degree, by the fact that tourism is Goa’s number one money spinner, both for the state and its people alike.

The crisis, according to leading environmental interests, is being caused by the fact that developers, keen to build more and more to accommodate the ever increasing numbers of tourists, have forced up land prices dramatically and have encouraged the tourism boom that now threatens the delicate coastal ecology of the area.

The diverse environmental groups who are based in this former Portuguese enclave, which only became part of India in 1961, have recently agreed to put aside their often unfathomable differences in an effort to put the brakes on the explosion of building activities taking place almost unnoticed in sleepy towns and remote villages dotted along the edge of Arabian Sea.

Perhaps somewhat surprised and shocked by the increasing clamor of protestors railing against hotels and apartments sprouting up all over Goa, the local government has promised to make efforts to try to keep the colonial-era character of India’s most popular holiday destination.

As an example of the steps being taken, Goa’s Town and Country Planning Ministry recently placed an indefinite ban on all real estate properties by foreigners.

But, perhaps not surprisingly, environmental groups claim that this is not addressing the real problem, and that suggesting that it is all the fault of foreigners is no more than an object lesson in denying responsibility!

They would say, and do so most vehemently, that it is unchecked building carried out by local business interests, who incidentally support the State government, that is the real problem. Indeed, local residents who now find the more sedate style of life to which they are accustomed disturbed by buildings being thrown up all around them would tend to wholeheartedly agree.

Moreover, this construction boom is taking place alongside a massive increase in industrialization throughout the region, which is making all previous predictions look somewhat silly. For example, a draft plan for the region that predicted a 30-percent rise in the settlement area between 2001 and 2006 had to be altered when values shot up by 21 percent between the months of March and August in 2005 alone!

To put what are claimed to be hard facts by he environmental groups into perspective, they say that some 70 million square meters of fertile orchards have been turned into concrete eyesores in some of Goa’s 400 villages in the past ten years alone.

Put another way, this has led to real estate prices more than doubling in urban districts since 2004 to 3,000 rupees (US$67) a square meter while beach front properties now cost twice that.

And as if this was not enough, the local pollution authority has warned that mining and tourism in Goa - which sees nearly 15% of the four million tourists who visit India yearly - has already caused irreparable ecological damage.

Now, environmentalists quote a revamped State master plan that was unveiled in April, 2006 that is targeted to create six new cities from nothing across the state, each with the almost obligatory luxury hotels and business districts. So, at the risk of sounding cheesy, where is Goa going?

It is clearly dreadfully unfair for westerners to enjoy all the fruits of their conspicuously consumeristic lifestyles, whilst attempting to deny those same benefits to others.

At the same time, taking an all too familiar colonially patrician attitude of “we know better than you do what is good for you” smacks of all things that were wrong about just about every Empire the world has ever had to tolerate (and the current example is most definitely included in this category).

But the fact is that Goa is still beautiful, and can be kept so for the benefits of future generations, with just a little more planning and forethought, a great deal more common sense and a conspicuous reduction in greed levels from all concerned, both in local government and in private enterprise, within the region.

 A Short Snippet   Continues Here....

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