‘Deaths on beaches reflect badly on Goa’s tourism safety’

There is a need to adopt new technologies and innovative measures to ensure beach safety because people dying on beaches reflects poorly on the state, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte said on Friday.

“There was a tragic incident some days ago when some people tried to take selfies in a ‘no-selfie zone’. Their unfortunate deaths reflect on the tourism and safety in the state,” he said at Candolim during the launch of safety initiatives to ensure beach safety by Drishti Marine after the recent deaths of four persons at Keri beach.

“It’s deeply painful to us, the lifesaving community, to lose an individual to the rough seas. To avoid such incidents in the future, barriers along with additional security personnel will be deployed at risk prone areas in order to deter visitors from accessing these potentially dangerous areas. Cordoning off the rocky area near Fort Aguada at Sinquerim has already led to minimisation of such incidents. We plan to replicate the practice in other treacherous spots on rocky beaches like Keri and Anjuna,” Drishti Marine said.

Besides this, deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to monitor risk-prone zones and increasing awareness about safe swimming practices are some of the measures being rolled out, Drishti Marine said.

It is also readying a ‘Paw Squad’, a team of trained dogs to aid lifesavers in rescue and beach safety operations.

Further, Drishti Marine is in the process of giving final touches to its two AI platforms, Aurus and Triton, which use advanced technology to assist lifesavers in beach safety.

Aurus is a self-driving robot and the AI-powered monitoring system, Triton, will augment life-saving capabilities along Goa’s beaches