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. Alappuzha: The backwaters of Kerala are a major tourist attraction, but the boom in tourism has led to rising pollution of the waters. The residents of a sleepy village on the prisitine backwaters in Alappuzha district are up in arms against the dumping of garbage by houseboats lacking waste disposal facilities. Villagers complain houseboats, hired mostly by foreigners for weeklong trips of the backwaters, dispose of their waste - garbage and sewage - into the waters. Notice boards have come up along some localities on the banks denying houseboats lacking proper sewage disposal systems the permission to drop anchor. "Unregulated plying of house boats is destroying the environment of Kuttanad. Small fishes have disappeared due to the use of kerosene. The drinking water sources have been polluted too. All sorts of pollutants including condoms used by foreigners are being dumped into the water," said R. Vishagan, head of Kainagheery village council. Civic agencies are quick to pass the buck over the cleaning of backwaters. "We have only given clearance to 4 houseboats. The rest of them are plying without pollution clearance certificate. Now it is the duty of the inland water authority to stop their plying and enforce the law on houseboats," said K Sajeevan, environmental engineer, Pollution Control Board, Alappuzha. Villagers also complain unregulated tourism has caused rampant commercialisation, resulting in an alarming rise in trafficking in women. A large number of poor girls are getting sucked into flesh trade for making a fast buck. A new branch of tourism, appropriately called sex tourism, is gaining notoriety along tourist spots like Kovalam, Kollam, Alappuzha and Kannur. The latter three rural belts are identified by a decline in traditional industries and cultivation. More than 50 percent of the women involved in 'sex tourism' are college students. Sex tourism is today evolving into 'travel and tourism' with women going out of the state and even the country. The
houseboats cruising the picturesque backwaters are the unique selling
point of Kerala's tourism industry. There was a 29.6 percent jump in the
number of foreigner tourists visiting the state, the figure touching 294,000,
and there were also 5.9 million domestic tourists visiting the state. References: Houseboats
in Kerala backwaters, Travel News, India Travel Times, Travel, Tourism,
Tour, Tourist, India, Times, News, Indian Hotels, Airlines, Ayurveda,
Yoga, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Cuisine, Festival, Temple, Trekking, Hindu, Bharatanatyam,
Kathakali, Odissi, Shimla, Varanasi, Kullu, Manali, Dehra Dun, Mussourie,
Haridwar, Rishikesh, Delhi, Goa, Kovalam, Darjeeling, Bodh Gaya, Kancheepuram,
Thekkady, Mussoorie, Badrinath, Amar Nath, Vaishno Devi, Tirupati, Sabarimala,
Guruvayoor, Kanyakumari, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Chennai,
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