Close on the heels of a group of foreign tourists having to clean the garbage-ridden Fort Kochi beach prior to taking a swim on Sunday, Kerala Tourism has sought a report from its officials on the condition of the historic beach on whose sands foreign traders and colonial powers once landed.
The tourism body was prompted to take action after a video and pictures of a group of Russian women tidying the beach and depositing the stinking garbage and litter that they collected in a few dozen trash bags went viral, it is learnt. This was followed by demands to augment beach-cleaning measures, with hospitality and other tourism stakeholders saying that the daily tidying of the beach by 20-odd sweepers and garbage collectors deployed by civic and tourism agencies was insufficient.
Among those who witnessed the Russians clean up the beach was C. Satish, president, All Kerala Tour Guides’ Association, while leading a group of NRI tourists. “It is a matter of shame that foreign tourists had to take up cleaning of Kerala’s prime beachfront. With tourism and other agencies doing little to take sustainable measures to ensure cleanliness of the beach, people are nowadays even suggesting a ‘litter-walking tour’ of the locale as a new tourism initiative to clear the mess,” he said.
