Blue Flag

This far, we have not carried our weights –

The dirt, filth, and wrappers of emptiness

The sands are white and clean, urging you to feel

The walk of coral silica blending in your grace

 

You look the same, unaged, as you did centuries ago,

This beauty unblemished by human hands

Tucked away in a far-off corner of this world

A tiny island draped with marbled sands

 

But more than beauty, you give us hope –

We too can keep the world intact, adorn it more,

If we can keep you draped in your primal glow

Despite, the million feet that come forth and pour –

What cant we reset with a little want –

Every beach of gold upon our dying mainland shore…

 

13^th June’ 2024

 

I first learnt of the concept of a Blue Flag beach at Radhanagar beach in the Andamans. The Blue Flag is an international ecotourism model initiated to recognize eco-friendly beaches and their effort to protect the marine environment of the beach. In a way, it is a recognition awarded to the safest, cleanest, and most environment-friendly beaches in the world. Radhanagar is one of only a dozen beaches in India with this certification (in comparison to Spain which has the highest in any country – over 500).

Radhanagar was beautiful but what was amazing was that it was clean, pristine and well maintained as if a primeval piece of land that came back from time, unscathed by human activity. (Ironically I visited one more beach on the same day – equally stunning and beautiful but littered with plastic bottled and even broken glasses from a beer bottle). Perhaps it is the Blue Flag that has prevailed in Andaman. I smiled that unlike yellow flags on a beach that safeguards human swimmers, here was a blue flag that safeguarded these sands against man! It gave me hope that despite the numbers, we can maintain a beach and control the flight of plastic bags and rubbish on its pristine sands. It makes me hopeful that this concept may help us keep our sandy beaches on the mainland clean, and devoid of intentional pollution. With a coastline of 7500km and over 500 beaches, we have a very long way to go. But at least, we have made a start, a small one from one far-off corner of a tiny island.

Havelock’s best, gifts not just amazing memories, but also the message of a blue-flagged hope to all the tourists who go back home and perhaps realise that we can always change our ways for the better.