VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

  On the Bay of Bengal coast, to the south of the Bhimunipatnam ridge, is an area comprising deeply gullied red sand dunes. You can look it up in Google Earth at (17 52.078' N, 083 25.845 E). This area is referred in Telugu as "Erra Matti Dibbalu" which translates to Red Sand Hills. They are unique because of the rarity of such gullied red dunes formations of which only three remain in South East Asia. The Erra Matti Dibbalu was formed over thousands of years. Nature, the great artist has gifted us these sublimely beautiful formations and it must be enjoyed with care. The threats to these dunes are from irresponsible tourism. Visitors scramble all over the dunes and erode them at an unnatural rate. The area is filling up with litter left behind by picnickers. Builders eye the empty land with hopes of building on it and government departments want to use it for some official construction or other. If the formations are to be saved, urgent action must be taken to safegu...

  Jayshree Hatangadi Heritage Narrator's theme was "180 degrees six stories"

WRONG MESSAGE FROM GVMC! We are headed on the wrong track. The best beaches in the world are kept natural with minimal landscaping but with basic amenities and top-class maintenance. Mass tourism on our beaches is destroying our valuable natural asset. After every event, we pay for the clean-up. Permanent damage is inflicted upon our sea. It is a simplistic myth that the type of "tourism" we get benefits the city. On the contrary, it diminishes our brand equity, ruins our natural assets and has no great economic gain because we follow the "high footfall, low revenue" model. Meaning that most of the tourists spend pittance in Vizag and trample upon our eco-sensitive assets. We should first deal with the huge geddas that deposit filth on our beaches every day. They will need a massive 200-300 crores budget. After that is fixed think of "beautification" Telling a citizen that he or she comes last on the priority is an insult to us. You build a ci...

ERRA MATTI DIBBALU, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India 24 Km from Palm Beach Hotel and 10 Km before Bheemili on the beach road Coordinates:  17 52.078' N, 083 25.845 E This video takes us on a quick visit to the Erra Matti Dibbalu site. It explains why the area is important and the terrible impact of garbage on its natural beauty, For more than a decade now the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department has been mishandling this site. Half-hearted attempts to convert it into a valuable tourist spot have failed. A couple of years ago it was declared as Geo Heritage site by an NGO but due to poor follow up and low management inputs it made no difference. It pops up in the news occasionally and vanishes from public view again. We must all work hard to give it the status it deserves. PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE WHY IT NEEDED A CLEAN-UP BEFORE CLEANING UP https://youtu.be/xwtULGwRXtM Erra Matti Dibbalu (Red Sand Dunes) is a beautiful but neglected site. It ...

By what I saw, when snarled in traffic for 2 hours on 31st night, there could be at least a lakh, drunken revelers, on bikes and cars on 31st night and early hours of 1st Jan. It is surprising therefore that only 287 were booked. Perhaps our wonderful men in uniform were lenient that night in the spirit of New Year. But if they booked, say 25,000 and penalized each Rs. 1,000/- they would have collected revenue of rupees 2.5 Crores! Even if there was an administrative expense of say Rs. 25 lakh for the deployment of manpower and the penalizing machinery we would still have a surplus of Rs. 2 crores. Perhaps we should consider outsourcing this activity next year at Rs. 50L for the contractor. Anything they make after expenses is theirs. Something to think about  😁

Vizag's Blue Flag aspirations Blue Flag for Vizag beach? Vizag's rather naive tourism department has been claiming from years that they will be getting a BLUE FLAG certification (https://www.fee.global/blue-flag) for Rushikonda beach real soon. They have spent several crores trying to fulfill all the 30 plus Blue Flag certification requirements. But with all the crap that comes down our geddas and floats up the sea from Vizag to the beaches in the North every day, keeping Rushikonda litter-free is a distant dream. Knowing how unlikely it will be to get a certification, it looks like some funny chap, erected a blue flag, on a heap of debris on the beach. This is across the road from Nethra Vidyalaya near Thotlakonda beach. Who says Vizagites don't have a sense of humor?

WHERE ARE ALL THE FROGS GONE? Where are all the frogs gone? Growing up and till recently, every time it rained we would hear the "GO GET DRUNK" ... "GO GET DRUNK" call of frogs from puddles, wet soils and from under the bushes in our backyard. Now we don't get to hear let alone see them. They have vanished from our cities and our villages too. Now, in our rural areas and hills, when I hear that once familiar croak of frogs, I am reminded of how quickly we are losing species. Extinction is a reality. Hundreds of species are lost every day. And we humans are the cause. That's something we can't be happy about. Teacher: Now children "F is for Frog Child: What's a "frog" teacher?

ONLY OTHERS KNOW BETTER Vizagites are not smart enough to know of our problems

STOP DESTROYING OUR BEACH https://youtu.be/RU8I2rIFLh4 CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO FIND OUT HOW VISAKHA UTSAV DAMAGES OUR BEACH AND SEA If we keep quiet we will lose the beauty of our beach and the Temporary leaders and bureaucrats don't give a damn about our real Vizag. Vizagites, please share this message. Let the authorities know that the destruction of our natural assets will not be tolerated anymore. Everything is not empty show business and commerce. Stop the madness now.

BARRICADED Vizag police have been barricading our roads for more than a decade. When NH5 was made to run through the populated parts of the city, many people trying to cross the road from the populated areas on either side would get hit by speeding vehicles. It would be proper at that time to make several pedestrian underpass or overbridges. But that did not happen as there was no money with the NHAI to do this type of work. So CMR started advertising on barricades which were placed on certain sections which would slow down traffic and provide cover long enough for pedestrians to scurry across the road. Later the police started saying that these barricades were put up to slow down fleeing Naxalites, making a gateway from the city, say after robbing a bank or a police armoury. Eventually, this theory was jettisoned. And a new explanation was offered saying that it reduced accidents. This was the most blatantly silly reason because one could see that these barriers incre...

We are the world champions in destroying our natural assets. Please see attached news items "Burning trash is turning off visitors at city's famous Rushikonda beach" Times of India dated 23rd Apr 2018 and Centre purposes relaxation of CRZ norms" The Hindu dated 19 Apr 2018 ............................... Now with a move to dilute the CRZ regulations, apparently to appease the tourism lobby (see attached news report) we are walking into trouble with our eyes wide open. Look what has happened to our once pristine *Rushikonda*. We unleashed our tourism department on the beach - no doubt with good intentions - and ruined it overnight. Everywhere the tourism department goes the place gets filthy and in no time has lost its charm. We see foreign travel shows on TV and think that we can replicate the scene here as if it all happens automatically by magic. We do not understand that after the infrastructure is set up , after the overpaid ...

The only city that doesn't have a visible sign showing the turn to the airport. Is that because we are a smart city?

14 to 16 November 2017 As a tourist event this was most ineffective. Visitors to the event were mainly Vizagites with a few from surrounding districts and Hyderabad. Pretty pictures but that's it It will be argued that the images of the colourful balloons floating over pristine green meadows inserted into emedia and airline magazines will give Araku a great boost. True, but when the tourists come where will the stay? Where will they go? What will they do? Already hordes of tourists from Bengal and other states come in the colder months stressing the town to its limits. These are quantity tourists with low power capita expenditure and is the worst thing that can happen to this eco sensitive part of our Eastern Ghats. Araku is damaged goods it is hardly ready for any more tourists.  Did we sell our tourism to those who came? The organisers did not even take the opportunity to sell our destination to the foreign balloon crew. They had no clue of the social, heri...

Share this - save our environment and save ourselves Pristine waterfall is treated as a bathroom

A 3 minute YouTube of our Heritage Walk in Old Vizag on 18th April 2017, World Heritage Day. Please watch the video and do take a moment to comment and share.  Please click on the KEEP READING  link below and then on the video to see the movie

World Heritage Day – a call to save our past Appeared in the Times of India on  17 April 2017 World Heritage Day - 18 April Tomorrow, 18th April is World Heritage Day. In 1982, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) based in France, announced 18 April as the "World Heritage Day", approved by the General Assembly of UNESCO in 1983, with the aim of enhancing awareness of the importance of the cultural heritage of humankind, and redouble efforts to protect and conserve our heritage.  In 2017, the theme is  “Cultural Heritage & Sustainable Tourism” , chosen in relation to the United Nations International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development and in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. What is heritage? What is Heritage in the first place? An explanation from the INTACH book titled “INTACH Jago” goes like this: “Heritage refers to something inhe...