Till about four years ago, Panambur was just another stretch along the Mangalore beach. The two-km stretch was quite similar to what neighbouring Tannirbhavi is today: A deserted place where you could set up your folding chairs in a shaded grove near the beach, have a picnic, and spend a lazy day.
But, today, Panambur is brimming with life. There are three shacks, and six lifeguards on patrol. It is barely 9 am, and at least 200 people have been to the beach in the past two hours. It is not even the tourist season. You could mistake it for Goa.
If Mangalore’s beaches had not been exploited for commercial activities earlier, it was not because no one had thought about it, but because its waters are much rougher than that of Goa or Kerala. While everyone knew what the problem was, no one had thought of a solution, until Yathish Baikampady came along.
The 48-year-old Baikampady had been a manager at State Bank of India for more than 25 years, when he stumbled upon an opportunity to clean up Mangalore’s beaches. What started as a clean-up exercise quickly led to a larger opportunity that led to Panambur shedding its image of being an unsafe beach.
Mangalore may not have been much of a tourist attraction because of its rough waters, but other Indian beaches that draw crowds are not necessarily safe either. In 2011, 28,859 people were recorded to have died due to drowning (not including deaths from capsized boats) in India.
Many of these deaths can be prevented by having more lifeguards, with improved equipment and training, and better patrolling along the beaches. Mumbai has 35 lifeguards for its six beaches. That’s less than two lifeguards per beach per shift. The 7.5 km-stretch covering Juhu, Santa Cruz and Versova has eight lifeguards per shift. Over the past four years, the number of deaths along Mumbai’s beaches has risen from two every year to an average of 23.
It is in this sphere that Baikampady’s company Panambur Beach Tourism Development Project has made a difference. His love affair with the sea comes from his roots: He belongs to a local fishing community called the Mogaveeras. But, for a large part of his life, his tryst with the sea had remained confined to childhood memories. In the 1980s, he found himself a bank job, and continued with it for 25 years.
The method
A chance visit to the local beach in 2008, and the sight of garbage all around, had made Baikampady feel like doing something about it. He approached Subodh Yadav, then deputy municipal commissioner, and began to clean up the beach with the help of volunteers.
In 2008, Mangalore’s municipal corporation was floating a tender to privatise the beach. This meant the beach would be run by a private organisation that would be responsible for its upkeep. The private player could organise events—such as concerts and game shows—to generate revenues, and run beach shacks. It, however, could not raise parking fees for vehicles and would have to share a portion of the revenue with the municipal corporation.
This was when Baikampady decided to look at the new opportunity as a full-time job, and quit his job at the bank. He bid for, and won, the municipal tender. He proposed that the government does not have to spend any money; he would pay the municipality 15 percent if he made profits. Although he is still using a trial-and-error method—he is yet to make profits—he has won a similar tender (for 10 years) for Someshwar beach.
In May 2011, Baikampady was part of efforts to clean the entire stretch of Mangalore’s coastline, comprising 43 beaches, organised by the Mangalore City Corporation and four other municipalities. The exercise saw 11,000 volunteers, armed with equipment and vehicles provided by the Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited, clean up about 93 trucks full of garbage in a single day. A similar effort was planned for this November.
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(This story appears in the 21 December, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Superb Show Mr. Yathish, We are proud of you. You have made entire mangaloreans feel proud off.. Keep up the show.
on May 23, 2013i wish him all the luck.
on May 19, 2013The article looks incomplete. Needs to talk more about the approach.
on Dec 31, 2012It requires lot of courage and conviction to do this transformation. Kudos Yathish!!
on Dec 21, 2012Who said Panambur Beach privatized ? Who gave the right to City Corporation to let out the beach ? First of Its NOT a beach. Every coast line is not a beach.
on Dec 19, 2012Thanks for your grateful informations, am working in Tourism Portal , so it will be a better information for me.
on Dec 18, 2012