Patricia Mukhim
Quite likely, tour operators benefitting from the new tourism boom will not like this article. But when was an article ever written to win applause? On July 22 last, people both visitors to Shillong and beyond and local commuters experienced the most horrendous traffic jam which started from Barapani to Mawiong-Mawlai up to the city. It took some people nearly three hours to commute between Barapani and Shillong. This is not funny, considering that it takes only 2.5 hours to fly from Delhi to Guwahati and it should take not more than three hours to commute between Guwahati airport and Shillong city on a good day. But July 22, was nightmarish. This traffic mania continued until Sunday. Normally the locals take time off to go drive beyond the city for a breath of fresh air. But on Sunday (July23) Mawkdok bridge with its scenic beauty turned awry. It was choc-a-bloc with traffic and you can guess where the cars are from. And why was there a traffic jam? Because the selfie mania has overtaken all of us! I am not against taking selfies. After all it’s the latest craze. But when selfies become the cause for a traffic melee then someone somewhere must be held accountable. But who can be held accountable since Meghalaya is now free for all? One traffic cop is hardly adequate to control unruly tourists! Today in Meghalaya, any number of tourists can come any day and they can enter our most sacred grounds including the sacred groves, by the hundreds on a single day, as long as they pay for it. No one can say a thing!
Our village communities have become victims of selfish greed and commerce. I wonder if those who collect entry fees at various tourist hotspots consider it appropriate to even get their accounts audited and share with the village the amount collected annually and how that money is used to upgrade infrastructure. Is tourism as it is happening today in Meghalaya a sustainable venture or are we heading for an overkill? And how can we evaluate ourselves without a policy that is well defined and has a long term vision of the impact of mass tourism on a state whose road infrastructure is overstretched and whose car population has shot up wildly to make the present size of the roads unsustainable?
If anyone cares to count vehicles coming up from the Mawlai-Mawiong stretch they will notice that for every one ML 05 vehicle there are at least 3-4 AS vehicles. I have tried counting. Those who don’t believe me can try this any day. The road leading to Mawlai from Barapani onwards is overstretched. You can get caught there for two hours or more. We didn’t need a garrulous Nalin Kohli to be given a motorbike lift to Shillong to tell us that our roads have reached breaking point. But is anyone in the Government even discussing this? We are now so tired of the serial inauguration programmes by the head of this state who operates like a Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of a company with passive/sleeping Board Members who don’t seem to have the acumen to check his wild adventures. He is doing good for himself but what about Meghalaya the public limited company? In case it slips the CM’s mind, (and that is likely to happen, considering that for the last five years he had been given a clean chit to do whatever he thinks is ‘good’ for the state), Meghalaya is not a private venture. Any decision the CM takes will affect 3 million people in the short and long run. Of course as John Maynard Keynes has said, “In the long run we will all be dead,” but what about the generation after us and the one after that?
The other day I posted on social media about the mindless traffic jam in the city due to the large influx of tourist taxis and private vehicles from Assam. One Facebooker commented, “ Didn’t the promoters of Mawlynnong think of the future impact of selling the destination as the cleanest village in Asia? That’s an apt comment. Did anyone sit to think of the long term impact of having a daily footfall of nearly 500 tourists and some more on weekends on the Living Root Bridge after paying a pittance of Rs 20 per visitor? Is this how we the people of Meghalaya value our heritage? Am I being fastidious in pointing this out? For goodness sakes, lest we forget, the Living Root Bridge is a LIVING breathing creature of nature as much as humans are. It has taken centuries to come to what it is today. And the present generation are so derelict in understanding the worth of this bridge that they are selling it for peanuts. I have, on several occasions, spoken to the village leaders of Mawlynnong and adjoining villages that they should package the sacred destinations we have with a little more thought and consideration for the future losses they will sustain once the destination packs up. For instance, a gate some distance away from Nohwet village (which owns the bridge), with well trained tour guides who will not allow any plastic items to be taken into the village is an imperative. Cars should not be parked too near the village since tourists who come to Nohwet and Mawlynnong or anywhere in Meghalaya should be ready to trek. The reason one points to vehicles is because the entire village is bearing the brunt of pollution and noise including little babies whose naps are disturbed by intrusive and cacophonous tourists.
I am sorry to point this out but Indians are the worst tourists whether we talk of Bangkok or Singapore or Switzerland. They are not looked upon too kindly. Reason? We have no culture for silent appreciation of nature. We want it all and we flock to a destination and junk it up. Period! Well what can we expect from people who have never lived close to forests and lakes and waterfalls? Would they know what it is to listen to the birds chirping early morning or at dusk? Would they care to just listen to the sound of the wind? No, all they look out for is a selfie click at a picturesque spot and then food to stuff in and then drive away. That’s it! And yes many of them eat packets and packets of chips and drink coke and throw the packets and bottles anywhere they like. That’s tourism for many of the Indian visitors. Excuse me but I am not being parochial here; simply realistic!
The questions one wants to ask those in Nohwet and Mawlynnong is whether they have sat together to think together? Has anyone from the village been taken to other tourist destinations abroad for them to learn a few lessons? I guess not. Else why would the shops all the way down to the Living Root Bridge sell Uncle’s Chips or Lays and a host of packaged eatables? What about the local products? The pineapples and several other local fruits and home- made snacks that they can introduce to tourists! What about pukhlein, putharo, pu-nei pumaloi and pu-doh? When we travel to South India does anyone care to serve us our local dishes? Don’t we have to eat dosa, idli or appams there? And we do it without complaints! So why are we diffident of selling our local food in Meghalaya? The profit from selling packaged products is a pittance. We are only enriching some multinationals even while our own food products are becoming a forgotten culture.
Alright, so what’s the takeaway from this article? Firstly, while there are many who believe that tourism is best left to the private sector, without stringent guidelines and a robust tourism policy each tour operator is going to go laissez faire (do as you please). Few have the conscience to develop tourism for the long term. Many are just cashing in on the boom and the profit and we can’t blame them. No one does anything out of altruism or enlightened self interest. Moral yardsticks and sensitivities are hard to apply in business. But a Tourism Policy that clearly lays out how sacred and rare (sacred groves and living root bridges) destinations are to be sold must be followed to the letter and there has to be supervision. Short-selling of destinations has led to the rush of day tourists who don’t generate income for Meghalaya since entry fees to these destinations are pitiably low. The road from Mawiong to Mawlai needs to be reconfigured. Not all cars carrying tourists and are bound for Sohra and elsewhere need to enter the city. We need a bypass, else someday soon a road rage will lead to murder along this stretch.
It’s high time that we in the media ask those villagers around the tourist destinations what they feel about the touristy influx. Let’s hear them out. Everything is not about money. Peace of mind may be important for some.
And by the way, what is the Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation doing other than having a Chairman? They have not been able to resolve the Crowborough imbroglio yet. Time to file an RTI on this white elephant and dismantle it!
Also we have not heard of any action from the Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) in a while. They first marketed Mawlynnong. Will they stand up and be counted now that Mawlynnong is about to fall off the ranks of the ‘nth’ wonders of the world? After the living root bridge collapses there will be nothing worth seeing there! The bridge is now held together by planks and all sorts of adhesives. But for how long??