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TOURIST'S JOY RIDES RUN INTO FISHERMEN'S NETS >From Pamela D'Mello Panaji: Traditional fishermen are beginning to react strongly to high speed water sports activity on some beaches of this touristic state, which they say disturbs their fishing grounds and nets. On Monday, a 400 strong group of fishermen and their families, incensed over an operator running a speed boat on the Nerul bay in North Goa, burnt her beach shack "Wave Rider". In the fracas, the shack's British owner Ms Maureen Chapman and her daughter Laura sustained injuries, as did some of the fishermen's crowd. Police registered cases against both groups for yesterday's violence. Nothing was left of the thatched palm shack. In January, fishermen attacked and stopped operations of a new Rs 2 cr water sports facility promoted by Raymonds industrialist Gautam Singhania in the same area. The club was offering jet skies, banana rides, jumpy rides and water skiing in a mainly fishing bay. On the intervention of the local MLA, authorities had ordered stoppage of all water sports in the area until further notification. "We had asked them to stop plying the boat. Jet skis and high speed boats operate with 140 hp engines as against the 15-40hp outboard engines of country craft. It completely disturbs our occupation", justifies Ambrose Mendes, from one of the 70 odd households in the fisherman's ward at the small but scenic Nerul bay. Tourism minister Francisco Pacheco has promised to regulate and license water sports activity in specific areas only, even as traditional fishermen from neighbouring Candolim-Calangute also began demaning a ban. Tourism activities though a major industry here over the past few decades, has often conflicted with older occupations and local communities. The Nerul bay itself has morphed from a near inaccessible fishing and farming ward into high value real estate with fancy bungalows overlooking the bay, and capital Panaji situated across the wide river.(ends) _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
