Hollow words

: En route to Munnar, Kerala’s premier hill-resort, one comes across several signboards with pious exhortations like “Do not scare animals”, “Prevent forest fires”, “Silence” and so on — all, no doubt, part of an eco-friendly tourism campaign. The irony, however, is that there are hardly any wild animals left to scare — and certainly not in the areas where the signboards appear. The little wildlife that survives in Munnar and its environs is confined to remote and largely inaccessible pockets. It is a sad and well-known fact that many areas once rich in wildlife are today a rash of resorts, bristling with tourists.

Worse, early this year I counted, in a single day, as many as 5 forest fires raging uncontrolled on the outskirts of Munnar. Nobody appeared to be in the least concerned and the fires eventually burnt themselves out, destroying all trees and vegetation in their path. It is paradoxical to say the least. On the one hand, people are repeatedly urged to prevent forest fires and thereby preserve the hill-resort’s fragile ecosystem. On the other hand, absolutely nothing is done when one breaks out. And it is well known that these devastating fires are the work of arsonists who collect the burnt trees to fuel the kitchens of local hotels and households.

What makes such apathy criminal is that Munnar has a full-fledged fire-force whose personnel is idle most of the time. And forest department staff can often be seen rushing around in jeeps on ostensibly urgent missions. However, dousing destructive forest fires is apparently not one of them. As for silence, it is never observed — not even in the Eravikulam National Park, the last refuge of the highly endangered Nilgiri tahr. Busloads of tourists arrive with blaring stereos, exuberant clapping and singing, not to mention catcalls and wolf-whistles. It often sounds as though an army of fun-starved people has descended on the hill-resort to have the time of its life. And these people certainly do — in the process, puncturing all the fine talk of eco-friendly tourism.

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