Aroma in the Air. Stinks in the ground

This marketing effort would be termed "excellent" if it was done by the coffee board. But for tourism it is totally irrelevant and a waste of money.

That is because Araku is already bursting at the seams with low to medium spending tourists.

The roads are crowded, chaotic and  filthy. Mountains of organic and plastic  garbage are strewn everywhere. Lines of squatting children do their job on the road sides. So much for ODF!

There are no public toilets and what little is available is sub Saharan standards. In the roads surrounding Araku we come across heaps of Plaster of Paris and plastic sheeting removed from some old film set. Thermocole packing material and styrofoam plates lie in the fields everywhere.

In the absence of any organised solid waste management every hotel and lodge takes their garbage across the road and chucks it into the bushes. Other than the APTDC property all lodges have poor standards.

The RTC bus stand is one of the worst anywhere with hardly any public amenities. The road leading to the bus stand, the coffee museum and the APTDC Mayuri property was a horrifying dirt and bitumen track. Now it has been concreted but it's lined with stinking garbage.

There is no organised parking and in the heart of the town vehicles are parked helter-skelter and speeding bikes weave through traffic dangerously. And as evening falls drunks stagger through the crowds.

The town has no pavements. Whatever is there is occupied by  myriad vendors selling all sorts of stuff and  Bamboo Chicken in the most unhygienic conditions.

What is supposed to be our premier tourist destination is more like a nightmare town from a Mad Max movie.

All this because there is no political will, no money and possibly no management know-how about how a town like this should be prepared for tourists.

 In fact it is simply not ready for middle to upper segment of tourism. When the balloonists came they were sequestered far away and not even shown this part of Araku.

First we spent 5 crores in hot air balloons in 3 days. Now we are spending Rs. 1.5 crores in 3 months on promoting coffee in the air, which is not the tourism department's business anyway. Looks like all the activity is in the air!

They should be spending the money on making Araku suitable for tourists and setting up hospitality and interpretation centres in coffee estates.

If those Spice Jet  flyers decide to visit  the source of Araku coffee and come to Araku now they will be greeted with foul stink and not the fine aroma of  coffee.