VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

OUR SEA IS DYING! While we deal with issues percieved as priority, our greatest asset, our beloved sea, is DYING. We are killing it ourselves. Please read the attached Marine Health news report n the Times of India today. Vizagites, if we want to save our sea we must take up the issue with our administration. We must turn away from the inane subjects that distract us and turn our  focus on the more important issues. One of them is the damage we are doing to our sea.

Recently in the hills near Vizag, a Blue Mormon butterfly feasted on the nectar of hibiscus. It flitted from flower to flower drinking for an hour or so. The Hibiscus gave the butterfly its nectar and in return the butterfly carried out its pollination duties diligently. It drank so much I wondered how it could still fly. I was hoping I had a bigger camera at hand but I did not. The sight was so pretty that I had to record it. I gave it a go with my phone camera and it seems to have come out all right. Thankfully the butterfly was quite focused on its task and did not bother to fly away even when I crept closer. As I left, I contemplated whether I would see this fluttering nectar guzzler again the next morning. What was its life span, as a butterfly, I wondered. Anyway I was overjoyed to watch this elegant little creature and am glad to share this little footage with you. SOHAN HATANGADI VIZAG

Just had some fun as I sat in a verandah observing nature unfolding

Faith is important and celebrating festivals is a tradition that we all enjoy. We will certainly miss the atmosphere and beauty of decorated outdoor pandals this Ganesh Chaturthi because of COVID-19. #WHATWEWILLNOTMISS is the profusion of synthetic, lead based paint coated, plaster of Paris (POP) idols that will be dumped in our sea and water bodies. We will not miss the thousands of plastic bags and assorted rubbish washed up on our beach after the immersions. Too bad the idol crafting workers are still using POP. Too bad they use dangerous synthetic enamel paints. Too bad they did not shift to clay based idols and natural colours. Too bad that our local administration are not paying them a stipend to exit this highly polluting activity or encouraging migrating to clay. And worse still is the misplaced sympathy that the print press displays for these workers every year. Don't you have any sympathy for our local ecosystem, our beautiful beach and sea and for plane...

You may remember Amit Dasgupta , a former diplomat, who was in Vizag during 2015-18. His spouse Deepa Dasgupta served in Vizag as Chief Commissioner of Customs, and Central Excise. During his stay here and afterwards too, he was in great demand as a speaker. Every talk was riveting, informative and a pleasure to hear. Vizagites would eagerly attend each one of them and come back inspired. This book "Stories of human spirit" is edited and compiled by Amit. There is much to discover in the book and every story is thought provoking and enjoyable. My story, "Three Lockdown Lessons", is on page 106. Order your copy of the E-book today, it is guaranteed to lift anyone out of the lockdown blues in a jiffy. Happy reading!

We know where it is but where is the sign?

Andhra Pradesh is below the national average on the governance of the environment. Let us not ignore the decline. The government and the citizens must be aware and vocal about protecting our environment.

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 ...

Lambasinghi from pristine to lawless This is a case study on how a beautiful, innocent, village can be ruined by dumb tourism and an administration that has no imagination. So much could have been done here but ... # ITDA   # PO   # COLLECTOR   # APTDC

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

Vizag police insist that the barricades they put up reduce accidents. Citizens have suggested that it will reduce accidents further if they completely close off our highways. As Vizag's traffic police are adamant about putting barricades on our highways and other roads, perhaps it is time to rename our city.

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.

NO PET BOTTLES AT OUR WEDDING At every wedding, thousands of PET water bottles are used. A complete waste of resources and the extraordinary pollution of our ecosystem. Stop it now. Insist that you will not accept a wedding with PET bottles. Yesterday I  attended a wedding where no PET water bottles were served.  Felt overjoyed that the campaign to keep plastics out of weddings is gaining ground. Thanks to friends like you, the message is reaching far and wide. Please continue to support this campaign by broadcasting the accompanying message to your contacts.