Earlier in August, the Marina Beach received the blue flag certification. This recognition is from a Danish foundation for environmental education. The Government while thanking the agency for this, said that this will help in boosting tourism, promote fisheries-dependent livelihood and help in sustainable coastal management. The idea it appears is that this effort will now be extended to other beaches on the coast. All no doubt very welcome but the ground reality seems to show that the recognition was obtained by means of a cosmetic clean-up of the beach without addressing fundamental issues. Are we running after certificates without having basics in place?
Around three decades ago, the Marina would have obtained blue flag certification without any effort. It was clean, had no vending stalls, and was as natural as a beach could be. Fishing boats were scattered about, as were nets. People bought snacks from itinerant vendors, wet their feet in the water and sat in the sand, enjoying the breeze. That idyll was however not to last long. The Greater Chennai Corporation, and other agencies such as the police who should have been more vigilant given that their office is just by the beach, allowed unauthorised vending to proliferate. Stalls were allowed to be put up and this could never have been possible without political connivance.
Eventually, the vendors became powerful enough to resist any attempts at removal. In the classic manner in which such matters progress/regress in our city, the earlier established vendors did not want later entrants, overlooking the fact that all occupation of the beach was illegal anyway. The Courts had to intervene and some modicum of order, observed more in the breach, was restored. However the continued presence of stalls means accumulation of a lot of food waste and proliferation of stray dogs. The feeding of pigeons and their going feral is another matter of concern. While we are not against animals or birds, their being left uncontrolled is not what is expected from a city’s administration.
That beach litter is a massive problem came to the fore in the days leading up to the inspection prior to certification. Over 500 volunteers had to be pressed into service for a massive clean-up drive. It just goes to show that routine conservancy has long lost meaning in the beach area. To what purpose then the installation of bamboo bins, beach umbrellas and watch towers without none of which we got along for almost a century? Does it not show that there is something seriously lacking in our civic discipline and more so in our civic administration?
We next come to the more serious issues – the claims that the blue flag certification will promote fishery and also help in coastal management. The first has been nailed by the real stakeholders, namely the fishermen themselves who have trashed this certification and have said it is detrimental to their livelihood as it will cut off access to certain parts of the beach. They have also said they were never consulted in the process. As for coastal management, what greater sham can there be? Just a few kilometres down the road, the High Court has had to come down heavily on houses for the rich being built right on the coastline in violation of CRZ rules. These are all illegal structures, built in cahoots with those who are supposed to check such activities.
Taken all in all, this blue flag certification is nothing but an elitist exercise, meant to cordon off a part of the beach for the well-to-do while the rest of the space languishes.