JOIN US"One State, Many Worlds”. This tagline beautifully captures the essence of Karnataka, but the tourism department has done pretty little beyond sloganeering to make site-seeing a pleasurable experience. A perfect picture of the state’s complete lack of orientation towards tourists was in full display at the famous Gaganachukki and Barachukki waterfalls on Sunday as two lakh people converged to savour the beauty of nature. With the Cauvery catchment receiving bountiful rains this year, such a huge crowd was expected, but the failure of the local administration and the tourism department to make adequate preparations in advance led to a 7-km long traffic pile up for over six hours, leaving people stranded in their vehicles, putting infants and the aged to undue hardship. This clearly points to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities. Inspector General of Police (Mysuru range) Soumendu Mukherjee, under whose jurisdiction the waterfalls are, failed to coordinate traffic and crowd management. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who holds the Home portfolio, Tourism minister Sa Ra Mahesh and Forest minister R Shankar are responsible for leaving tourists in the lurch. They must take the blame for the fiasco as they have been unable to put their heads together to resolve long-pending issues like providing adequate parking facilities, widening the narrow road between the two falls and to nearby towns and creating other tourist-friendly infrastructure.
Gaganachukki-Barachukki is just one of the many failures of government to promote tourism. Karnataka is blessed with historical monuments, pristine beaches and forests, but the absence of even basic facilities like good roads, accommodation, restaurants, clean toilets, information booths or currency exchange kiosks, has been a stumbling block to exploiting the state’s full potential. While on the one hand, the government has woefully fallen short of addressing these inadequacies, on the other, it has not succeeded in roping in the private sector to create top-class, tourist-friendly destinations. With quick one-day getaways becoming popular, it is imperative that the government creates holiday hubs closer to cities as it will also help reduce pressure on eco-sensitive districts like Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru, which are now virtually crumbling under the weight of tourists.
While even small countries like Thailand, which have much less to showcase, attract tourists like a swarm of bees, Karnataka, with its immense opportunities, has not yet been able to tie the loose ends. Tourism continues to be a non-priority sector because it has no takers among politicians as it is not a ‘plum’ portfolio. The need of the hour is a dynamic tourism minister and an equally committed band of officers who will look beyond vote bank politics to put Karnataka on the world map. With some foresight, tourism could have become a cash cow for the state, but today it is nobody’s child, an orphan.