By Cdr Pratap S Mehta, Veteran

In Blog, ‘Water & Adventure Sports soon to begin in Udaipur’ by Sohail Khan dated 4 November, 2014.

The news is very encouraging and I am looking forward to it. Having spent over 30 years at sea and taken part in numerous adventure activities around the world, I feel proud that my home town with so much of natural resources has finally made a proposal for Water Sport & Adventure center, through Tourism department. Such activities make us fearless, daring, team player, decision makers and above all create healthy body & mind.

In another Blog, ‘Water Sports will destroy the Environmental system’ by Udaipur Times dated 7 November, 2014.

With due respect, some environmentalists and intellectuals have got together with prime agenda to stall the project, before it takes off. Their concerns are genuine, considering the ‘चलता है’ attitude of most Indians- indiscriminate disposal of the packing materials, food items, spitting, etc- anywhere and everywhere! But let’s look at the spin-offs from any outdoor activity, which helps spirit of team building, motivation, decision making, etc leading to character building in a nation. Therefore, the task of promoter/manager becomes very important as he is also a facilitator to develop soft skills among the participants and the onlookers as well. If someone chucks a waste plastic bag, can we be a silent spectator? No more!

Example of ‘Chalta-Hai’ attitude: in August last year, 2013, whilst taking morning walk on Fateh Sagar paal, I was pleasantly surprised to see little ones learning canoeing/sculling. However, I was distressed to see that none of them were wearing a life jacket. When the so-called supervisor cum helper was questioned, he was very casual and did not think that life jacket was an important factor. In fact they were not available for learners, as children told me! I did not know who to report and returned to Mumbai by afternoon flight. Let us follow the safety regulations to the hilt and not wait for a disaster to happen!

Let’s find a solution to ‘prevent’ destruction of environment and encourage adventure activities in the best interest of nation building, rather than preventing it. All such activities require safety standards of international order and we must pay for them. It would be good if the environmentalist and NGOs can concentrate on educating, motivating and inspiring the general public and vendors to keep their city clean and pollution free. Mind you! Educating and training is a continuous process and not a one-time ‘phot-op’ session.

Filth and Garbage in Fateh Sagar Lake – August, 2013

Soap and Tel Maalish before they take plunge in Fateh Sagar

Mother is much pleased. Can we stop this water pollution?