State Interventions, Lakshadweep’s Future

Context: Lakshadweep’s integration into the mainstream should not lead to emotional alienation and physical damage.

Four controversial proposals in Lakshadweep: On pretext of tourism development

• The Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation
• Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation
• Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulation
• Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation

Features of Maldivian Tourism Model:

• In Maldives, tourism since 1970s is centred on water villas in uninhabited islands, ensuring that very few coconut trees are cut with limited home stays introduced in 2015.
• A ‘one island, one resort’ policy has kept pressure on reefs low due to a wide distribution of the tourist population.
• The business model is about giving coral reefs economic significance where rich and healthy reefs are essential for private capital’s economic returns.
• Tourists come because of the natural beauty and the sheer amount of marine life; resort owners commit to conserve the reefs and divers at the resorts are quick to report illegal activities.
• Regulation is limited to ban on reef fishing and collection of corals, having no centrality to land acquisition.

Major concerns regarding the proposals

• Contradictions in strategy:
  • On the one hand, NITI Aayog, in 2019, identified water villas and land-­based tourism projects, suggested zoning based on land acquisition and focused on sustainable development.
  • On the other hand, The Integrated Island Management Plan prepared under the guidance of the Supreme Court, and National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management in 2016 had rejected ‘home stays’ in view of the strict social customs and strong resistance of the vast majority.
• Redefines public policy to public purpose: Ignoring public interest and strategic issue, that is, the interplay of ecological fragility, insular cultural geography and strategic location.
  • Reliance on the power of government or ‘public purpose’ for acquiring private land unnecessarily opening the door to conflict and the Supreme Court.
  • The SC in Dev Sharan vs State of Uttar Pradesh, in 2011, pointed out that, “Any attempt by the State to acquire land by promoting a public purpose to benefit a particular group of people or to serve any particular interest at the cost of the interest of a large section of people especially of the common people defeats the very concept of public purpose....”
• Issues in tourism strategy: While the Maldives model did uphold cultural and environmental sensitivities, it is being discarded in Lakshadweep.
• Environmental challenges remain unaddressed: Like scarcity of drinking water supply and infeasibility of conventional method of sewage treatment because of the coral sandy strata and high-water table.
• Political insensitivity: Public interest is being re­defined, shifting the debate from private tourism to urbanisation.
  • Despite inhabited is­ lands being defined as ‘cities’ in the Census, they do not need to be developed as ‘smart cities’ with a focus on infrastructure requiring large­scale construction & acquisition.