Wayanad: Sitting on her uncle's lap in the front passenger seat, two-year-old Naira Fathima is all smiles, enjoying the ride in her father's jeep. Behind the wheel, Naufal Kalladi has a lost look, but his lips curve up, almost reflexively, whenever Naira looks at him. It was a short, but now becoming frequent, trip for the father-daughter duo to the clinic in Chooralmala. "I think the sound of the big blast upset her. From time to time, after that night, she runs a high fever," said Naufal (32), a resident of Neelikappu, a residential street in Chooralmala.
But Naira's recurring fever is not the only thing troubling his mind. Naufal has been jobless since the landslides razed Mundakkai and Chooralmala and killed over 360 people on July 30. Naufal is among the 216 registered jeep drivers who plied their 4x4 jeeps at Thollayiram (900) Kandi -- a thriving tourist destination, 5km away from Chooralmala in Meppadi grama panchayat. They took tourists arriving at 900 Kandi on a 3 km off-road trip to the glass bridge, soft adventure park, and resort. On a regular day, each of the 216 drivers would get at least one trip to the glass bridge. They carried six tourists per trip, charging Rs 1,200, and the resort owner gave them another Rs 400 as commission. After expenses and maintenance of the vehicle, the drivers would take home around Rs 1,000 every day. However, the resorts in the disaster-hit panchayat are not allowed to reopen yet. Four of the 216 drivers died in the landslides and the rest are jobless, said Naufal, who lost his house under construction to the 2019 landslide in Puthumala, 2km from Chooralmala. "Now I take out my jeep only to go to hospital," he said.
Around 50 km away in Mananthavady, Wayanad Square Hotel lowered the tariff of its non-AC rooms to Rs 1,000 from Rs 1,400 even during the extended Independence Day weekend. "Of our 36 rooms, only three rooms are occupied and none of them are tourists," said Manu Mathai, proprietor of Wayanad Square on Thursday, August 15. "I got the three clients because my hotel is in town and people come for business purposes. But homestays and resorts across the district saw nearly 100% cancellation because the government and the media went to town saying the landslide destroyed Wayanad district when in reality it affected only Mundakkai and Chooralmala, two wards in Meppadi panchayat," said Mathai, who is also the district secretary of All Kerala Tourism Association.
Mathai said he knew the condition of homestays and resorts because he ran a laundry business, too, with 12 resort clients. "I get no business. Even when clients send their laundry, they have no rush to get it back. Before, they barely gave me three days," he said. Tourism players said they were not underplaying the humongous human tragedy in Meppadi panchayat. "But unlike the 2018 floods, which affected almost all 14 districts, displaced over a million people and destroyed houses, roads and bridges, here the destruction was confined to two wards though the number of deaths was almost the same," said Mathai. "We are talking of the livelihood of thousands of families," he said.
Tourism players particularly took exception to the messaging that the landslide affected the whole of Wayanad. "It will take a long time to undo such messaging," said Shylesh C P, secretary of Wayanad Tourism Organisation, an influential group of around 60 homestays and resorts. In 15 days, the local tourism industry suffered a loss of at least Rs 60 crore, he said. With no signs of bookings, losses would balloon and push tourism entrepreneurs into debt traps. On August 15, the Department of Tourism opened six of its 11 destinations. But the popular Forest Department-controlled eco-tourism destinations remain shut over man-animal conflict on the direction of the high court.
The tourism entrepreneurs — from the big hotels and small homestay owners to roadside eatery owners and taxi drivers — are livid for being branded as "mafia" and made the fall guy for the landslide or man-animal conflicts. Adding insult to injury was the statement of the Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes OR Kelu who hinted that the tribe communities, farmers and the poor of Wayanad did not benefit from tourism. "When one or 10 resorts come up in Wayanad, who are the people working there? I understand that most of the workers are from outside the district. I am not saying they should not work here. But are the indigenous people, farmers and the poor living here benefiting from tourism? I'm saying this not to create a controversy but to highlight the need for a study," Kelu, representing Wayanad's Mananthavady assembly segment, told Reporter TV.
The statement triggered a flurry of angry discussions in tourism WhatsApp groups in Wayanad. Several industry players said tourism now contributed to 25% of the district's economy, almost on par with agriculture. Ranjini Menon, who runs Turmerica, a six-room homestay at Chundale near Kalpetta, said of the around 800,000 people in Wayanad, around 125,000 people were involved in tourism, and the tribespeople came to around 150,000. "So it is evident that people from all sections are involved in tourism," she said.
Listing out the specifics, Menon said the employees at En Ooru, the first tribal heritage village in Kerala at Pookode, are tribespeople; Chekadi, a tribe majority village in Pulpally panchayat, is a sought-after tourist destination; Chettyalathoor and Nellarachal villages are all steeped in tribal culture and are benefiting from tourism, she said. "Their products and produce are branded and promoted at fairs and events," she said. The fame of archer K Govindan (73) has reached at least 65 countries, she said. Tourism fueled by small homestays is the single biggest reason for the decline of farm suicide in Wayanad, Menon told Onmanorama. "Homestays provide farmers with an alternative source of income even if their crops fail," she said. "We are not mafia we are farmers," she said.
To be sure, there was a series of farm suicides in the early 2000s and another in the first half of the previous decade. Tourism in Wayanad is an interplay of the Forest Department, Irrigation Department, KSEB, Tourism Department, big resort owners, small homestay owners, small and big restaurants and eateries, taxi drives, auto drivers, farm labourers, dairy farmers, vegetable farmers, electricians, plumbers, painters, gardeners, Kudumbashree, homemakers, the list is endless. "Tourism is for all of us. It is not just about big hotels," said Menon, an executive committee member of the Kerala Homestay & Tourism Society. "But whenever something goes wrong, Wayanad is singled out and a blanket ban is imposed. We saw that when the High Court shut down all the eco-tourism centres run by the Forest Department in February, during the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode, and now the landslide in Meppadi panchayat," she said.
AO Varghese, a retired police officer who runs Vythiri Eco Green Resort, a five-room homestay with a swimming pool in Vythiri, said people in Wayanad now have regular jobs because of tourism. "Take the case of the 300-odd jeeps catering to the two glass bridges at 900 Kandi. That is 300 families taken care of," he said. There was a time when Wayanad was a weekend destination. But after COVID-19, tourists have made it a round-the-year accessible destination with rooms and restaurants for all categories of travellers, he said. "Now the poor also pool in money and come in groups for a one-day visit or a one-night visit," he said.
The data attested to Varghese's observation. According to the Department of Tourism, in 2023, 1.75 million people visited Wayanad, taking the district to the top 5 destinations in Kerala, above Kozhikode and Alappuzha. The footfall saw a 53% jump from 2019 (pre-covid) and a 16% jump from 2022. Most of the tourists are from the rest of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, said Varghese, who has been running the homestay for the past 20 years.Seeing the potential of tourism, Varghese encouraged his son Jibin to pursue a course in travel and tourism and was running the homestay with him and his wife. But Covid-19 claimed his son. "Now this homestay keeps my wife and me engaged," he said. After expenses, he used to make around Rs 50,000 every month. But for the past 25 days, Varghese did not have any guests. "But I managed to convince a group of 30 Kudumbashree women to postpone their one-day trip to next weekend (August 24) instead of cancelling," he said.
The nearly 15-day shutdown triggered job losses. "I got calls asking if there are jobs in my hotel and laundry businesses," said Mathai. He said the government's alleged narrative that Wayanad was destroyed in the landslides is "unintentionally or intentionally benefiting only the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund", he said. "But the government should know our GST will be much bigger than what is sent to the relief fund," he said.
Another tourism entrepreneur, who employs 47 workers in his adventure park and resort in Vythiri taluk, was disappointed with the government's handling of the fund-raising campaign. "My June's GST alone could pay the salary of 15 government employees," he said, not hiding his anger. He paid Rs 5.83 lakh in taxes. The Wayanad Tourism Organisation is running a counter campaign on social media with the hashtag 'Visit Wayanad' telling the district is safe. "We mourn the loss of many and we appreciate the support that you offered. It's important to clarify that Wayanad is a district, not a town," the campaign said.
It is a vast area of 2,131 sq km with a population of 817,420 people. The landslide affected only two villages in the southern part of the district, covering 125.96 sq km, or 6% of the district. But the misconception that the entire district was affected by the landslide grew among the public, it said. "Wayanad's economy depends heavily on tourism. Most of the tourist destinations are now open and are perfectly safe to visit," the social media post said, and urged the people to "help Wayanad heal with your visit".
WTO repeated the message in its memorandum to Collector Meghashree DR. Despite the social media campaign, the perception among people will change only if the government goes out and tells the district is safe, said WTO secretary Sailesh.
What the stats say
The state government's Department of Economics and Statistics do not collect data specific to tourism, said District Officer Sheena P. But the data on the primary sector (agriculture) and tertiary sector (services) will give a broad idea.
According to the data, a whopping 64% of gross domestic value added (GDVA) -- which is GDP minus taxes -- is contributed by the tertiary sector, which includes hotels, restaurants; real estate, ownership or dwellings & professional services; transport, storage & communications; financial services; public administration and other services.
Among them, hotels & restaurants and real estate, ownership or dwellings & professional services contribute 24.66% or Rs 31.65 billion to the district's Gross Domestic Value Added. The share is close on the heels of the primary sector, which includes agriculture, fishing and forestry (28%), and mining. (To be sure, mining & quarrying contributes only 0.24% to the GDVA of Wayanad.) In 2011-2012, hotels & restaurants and real estate, ownership or dwellings & professional services contributed only 17% to Wayanad's GDVA.
During the same period, Wayanad's per capita income increased by 60% to Rs 150,307 in 2020-2021 from Rs 93,559 in 2011-2012. Industry players attributed the income surge to tourism. Overall, Wayanad's gross domestic value added (GDVA) of Rs 128.36 billion in 2020-2021 is only 1.87% of the state's GDVA. The data establishes Wayanad as a financially backward district. "With no growth in the farm sector, tourism has become the proverbial straw farmers are clutching at," said Menon.
The ills ailing the industry
Yet, all is not well with the tourism sector. All major tourism organisations and associations have a common complaint: to get all the homestays and resorts in Wayanad registered with a common agency. The government has zero data on the players in the district. Deputy Director of Tourism Prabhath D V said there were only 32 homestays and resorts registered with the department.
Sailesh of WTO said that the Town Planner's report found 1,700 resorts and homestays in Wayanad but there could be at least 3,000 plus properties. Tourism consultant KR Vancheeswaran said the government should hire an independent agency to map the district and assess the carrying capacity of each area to regulate the flow of tourists and decide how many resorts and new buildings should be allowed in an area. Renjini Menon said small and medium tourism players respected no-go areas and ecologically sensitive areas and the government should strictly enforce the law.
Vancheeswaran, however, said homestays were not the reason for the landslides that hit Mundakkai and Chooralmala. "Among the houses destroyed in Mundakkai and Chooralmala, there would be only two homestays," he said. There were no houses in the first 2km of the debris flow. Despite tell-tale signs of a landslide, the failure of the government to evacuate the people downhill led to the massive loss of lives, tourism players said.
On Minister Kelu's doubts that tourism was not benefiting the tribespeople and farmers, Vancheeshwaran said the fruits of entrepreneurship would trickle down. "It's been just a decade and a half. Give the industry time. Maasai Mara did not happen overnight. Wayanad tourism should not have a premature death," he said. Wayanad Eco-Tourism Organisation President Sunny Mathew said the government's knee-jerk decision to shut down tourist destinations was the easy way out. "But that is not the solution," he said and added that the government has to invest in making destinations safe. "Because too many lives and livelihoods today hinge on tourism," he said.
