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As someone born and brought up in India, I'm a little conflicted about this. Of course it is true that a lot of Indians have no civic sense, and will spit, lit

As someone born and brought up in India, I'm a little conflicted about this. Of course it is true that a lot of Indians have no civic sense, and will spit, litter, and generally make a noisy nuisance of themselves in this quiet village. On the surface it seems to be a great story about that nuisance being kicked out one day of the week. At the same time, this is part of...India. It seems questionable legally, and also morally, to just kick out people from the rest of the country and even the state on a a specific day. Your village benefits to some degree from their taxes. How would it be if the villagers were locked into their village for that day and not allowed to travel outside? Is the solution to a lack of civic sense really just to make more and more of these clean enclaves? Will they finally end up expanding and covering more of the country? I would honestly feel better about this if the entire state of Meghalaya had some kind of cleanliness drive and a tourist tax. I don't have any easy solutions. If I did, they would have occurred to someone in India and it would be a lot cleaner by now.

thewhitetulip 3mo ago
> Visitors who book guesthouse rooms in Mawlynnong through Saturday and Sunday are exempt from the Sunday ban Did you read the article?
- quadrifoliate 3mo ago
  I did, a requirement to book a guesthouse room through the weekend does not make the moral/legal issues any better. Imagine that some town in the US did this; and shut down otherwise public roads to anyone who is not a resident or a guest of a hotel in the town for the weekend, citing visitor nuisance as the reason. Would you feel better about it because "well you can just book a hotel for the weekend"?
  - alephnerd 3mo ago
    Article 13 allows customary law to be applied following judicial review. It's the same precedent most Himachalis use to keep tourists contained to a handful of tourist traps while keeping the rest of the state clean. Other border states and Northeastern states do the same thing. Semi-urban areas like Mawlynnong are governed by Panchayats - not municipal councils - and overtourism can become a kiss of death.
    - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
      Overtl tourism is a major issue in Bali, Japan and Bhutan as well. It's a global thing. I remember reading that Greece or some European country had banned cruise ship docking because they didn't want the crowd who runs around the city for half a day
      - alephnerd 3mo ago
        My personal opinion is less about the crowding (though that is a pain) and moreso how overtourism creates a form of Dutch disease and prevents more inclusive economic from being created. The state in India I mentioned (Himachal Pradesh) has a large tourism industry, but because of strict zoning laws was able to reduce the overall impact of tourism and zone SEZs and industrial parks which helped MSMEs climb up the value chain in industries such as generic pharma manufacturing and food processing. If hotel and homestay zoning was lax, there would have been less of an incentive for local capital to invest in capex heavy but ultimately higher value economic output. And it was that economic output that helped HP subsidize it's welfare system that was able to bring the state's HDI to middle of the pack Chinese province levels despite not having a single metro with population greater than 200k.
        thewhitetulip 3mo ago
        I know HP lol I live in India I hadn't thought of it from your PoV but it makes sense. And I had just been to the Sar pass trek from Kasol, and let me tell you. It's insanely over crowded right now. Despite the regulations. On our trek we easily had 300+ people at 13k feet! So I fully support such decisions because small towns can't handle such crowd
        srean 3mo ago
        Sadly Arunachal is quickly becoming piss pit despite the fact that you need permits to visit. Same for Kedarnath. Permits need to be issued with the carrying capacity of the land in mind. Bhutan seems to pull this off well.
    - 3mo ago
  - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
    There is a difference between "trippers" and renters. Had your read the article you'd know that they are ok with people living in cottages on Sunday just not "trippers" They want to reduce people who visit without staying. For Sunday is their day for mass etc Also most businesses are still closed on the Sunday because the town is Christian
    - quadrifoliate 3mo ago
      > There is a difference between "trippers" and renters. Had your read the article you'd know that they are ok with people living in cottages on Sunday just not "trippers" Again, none of this makes it right. It's medieval-style thinking to just put up a gate on Sundays to keep all the "trippers" out as you put it. What if every city and town in India started doing this?
      - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
        I'm not in US and have never set foot there ever. But I've lived my entire life in India so far. Most cities and towns won't do this because this affects only a handful of extremely small tourist places which are cool like have snow so they attract 80% of our 1 billion population who choose to be tourists. I get your overall point though. But major cities just don't suffer from the same problems! Say Chennai or Mumbai or Trivendrum or Kochi or anybody else - this is simply not a problem. They don't have over tourism. And such decisions will not be taken anywhere else in India
        quadrifoliate 3mo ago
        > But major cities just don't suffer from the same problems! Say Chennai or Mumbai or Trivendrum or Kochi or anybody else - this is simply not a problem. They don't have over tourism. It might not be tourism specifically, but major cities have a huge problem with net migration into the cities, typically from rural areas. This causes overcrowding, slums, and a ton of pressure on land and water. Logically, the cities should also be free to ban "outsiders" from coming in for whatever time they want. After all, the outsiders are encroaching on their way of life! Great, let's ban anyone from entering Chennai or Mumbai unless they own or rent land there, or have a confirmed hotel booking! We can set up checkpoints at the city boundaries, and require anyone coming in to show these proofs. See how quickly this logic can fall apart if everyone starts applying it?

thewhitetulip 3mo ago

> Visitors who book guesthouse rooms in Mawlynnong through Saturday and Sunday are exempt from the Sunday ban Did you read the article?

quadrifoliate 3mo ago
I did, a requirement to book a guesthouse room through the weekend does not make the moral/legal issues any better. Imagine that some town in the US did this; and shut down otherwise public roads to anyone who is not a resident or a guest of a hotel in the town for the weekend, citing visitor nuisance as the reason. Would you feel better about it because "well you can just book a hotel for the weekend"?
- alephnerd 3mo ago
  Article 13 allows customary law to be applied following judicial review. It's the same precedent most Himachalis use to keep tourists contained to a handful of tourist traps while keeping the rest of the state clean. Other border states and Northeastern states do the same thing. Semi-urban areas like Mawlynnong are governed by Panchayats - not municipal councils - and overtourism can become a kiss of death.
  - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
    Overtl tourism is a major issue in Bali, Japan and Bhutan as well. It's a global thing. I remember reading that Greece or some European country had banned cruise ship docking because they didn't want the crowd who runs around the city for half a day
    - alephnerd 3mo ago
      My personal opinion is less about the crowding (though that is a pain) and moreso how overtourism creates a form of Dutch disease and prevents more inclusive economic from being created. The state in India I mentioned (Himachal Pradesh) has a large tourism industry, but because of strict zoning laws was able to reduce the overall impact of tourism and zone SEZs and industrial parks which helped MSMEs climb up the value chain in industries such as generic pharma manufacturing and food processing. If hotel and homestay zoning was lax, there would have been less of an incentive for local capital to invest in capex heavy but ultimately higher value economic output. And it was that economic output that helped HP subsidize it's welfare system that was able to bring the state's HDI to middle of the pack Chinese province levels despite not having a single metro with population greater than 200k.
      - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
        I know HP lol I live in India I hadn't thought of it from your PoV but it makes sense. And I had just been to the Sar pass trek from Kasol, and let me tell you. It's insanely over crowded right now. Despite the regulations. On our trek we easily had 300+ people at 13k feet! So I fully support such decisions because small towns can't handle such crowd
        srean 3mo ago
        Sadly Arunachal is quickly becoming piss pit despite the fact that you need permits to visit. Same for Kedarnath. Permits need to be issued with the carrying capacity of the land in mind. Bhutan seems to pull this off well.
  - 3mo ago
- thewhitetulip 3mo ago
  There is a difference between "trippers" and renters. Had your read the article you'd know that they are ok with people living in cottages on Sunday just not "trippers" They want to reduce people who visit without staying. For Sunday is their day for mass etc Also most businesses are still closed on the Sunday because the town is Christian
  - quadrifoliate 3mo ago
    > There is a difference between "trippers" and renters. Had your read the article you'd know that they are ok with people living in cottages on Sunday just not "trippers" Again, none of this makes it right. It's medieval-style thinking to just put up a gate on Sundays to keep all the "trippers" out as you put it. What if every city and town in India started doing this?
    - thewhitetulip 3mo ago
      I'm not in US and have never set foot there ever. But I've lived my entire life in India so far. Most cities and towns won't do this because this affects only a handful of extremely small tourist places which are cool like have snow so they attract 80% of our 1 billion population who choose to be tourists. I get your overall point though. But major cities just don't suffer from the same problems! Say Chennai or Mumbai or Trivendrum or Kochi or anybody else - this is simply not a problem. They don't have over tourism. And such decisions will not be taken anywhere else in India
      - quadrifoliate 3mo ago
        > But major cities just don't suffer from the same problems! Say Chennai or Mumbai or Trivendrum or Kochi or anybody else - this is simply not a problem. They don't have over tourism. It might not be tourism specifically, but major cities have a huge problem with net migration into the cities, typically from rural areas. This causes overcrowding, slums, and a ton of pressure on land and water. Logically, the cities should also be free to ban "outsiders" from coming in for whatever time they want. After all, the outsiders are encroaching on their way of life! Great, let's ban anyone from entering Chennai or Mumbai unless they own or rent land there, or have a confirmed hotel booking! We can set up checkpoints at the city boundaries, and require anyone coming in to show these proofs. See how quickly this logic can fall apart if everyone starts applying it?