Golf courses in Kerala, India are being increasingly brought in to focus due to the environmental and social problems that they engender.

Kerala Tourism Watch, a coalition of civil society activists and local communities, along with Equations and Kabani – the other direction, have urged the Kerala government to close the Trivandrum golf club and abandon its golf course. The coalition believes that the environmental and social impacts warrant a more fundamental approach of dissolution rather than changing the ownership from private to public.

The golf courses are being increasingly brought in to focus due to the environmental and social problems that they engender. Everywhere in the world, golf courses have been a major threat for local communities primarily in terms of uncontrolled ground water depletion. Trivandrum golf course for example has been reportedly consuming lakhs of liters of water every day to maintain the grass turf. Conservative estimates by various international agencies show that an 18-hole golf course would consume 50 lakh liters of water a day, enough for nearly 10,000 families in a state like Kerala. We must remember that the water consumption by the Coca cola plant at Plachimada had been 5 lakh liters a day. It is hardly surprising that the arrears towards water charges of Trivandrum Golf Club ran in to several lakhs of rupees. At a time when the common people in the city face acute water shortage, maintaining a golf course with direct and indirect state subsidies violate principles of social justice.

The argument that the golf courses would promote tourism in the state is completely unfounded, accordling to the coalition. Studies have shown that tourists visiting destinations in developing countries, including India, belong to the low spending segment of international travelers, and that it is unlikely that they will be interested in golf. Alternatively, they feel that golf courses will not be an adequate incentive for high spending travelers to visit destinations in poor countries, and that allowing golf courses to flourish disregarding their environmental and social impacts will only serve the interest of the local elites.

The coalition demands that government should take back this valuable property and sees this opportunity to convert it into a bio diversity park. The coalition strongly condemns the attempt by club authorities to use the tourism façade to legitimise their elitist biases and vested interests.

Even further, the coalition is demanding that existing courses in Trivandrum and Kochi be immediately closed down, as well as shelving the proposed one in Nedumbassery, noting that the Nedumbassery project involves land acquired by evicting local people in the name of Nedumbassery International Airport. Tourism department and government of Kerala should pay attention to the concerns raised by national and international movements which oppose golf courses on environmental and social grounds.

For more information, visit www.keralatourismwatch.org.