India's popular beach destination Goa debates price of tourism Over the past three decades, the tiny western Indian state of Goa has become a popular beach destination for Indians and foreigners alike, offering a mix of sun, sand, dance music festivals, ayurvedic-healing resorts and businesses bearing names such as Karmic Cafe, Buddha Tattoo and Nirvana Bar. But the sun-seekers" haven is rapidly acquiring a darker reputation - as a hub for international drug trafficking and Ecstasy-chasing tourists. Two weeks ago, the shadowy subculture of the area dubbed India's "cocaine coast" by the media was exposed when violence actually spilled onto the streets: After a Nigerian man was killed in a turf war between rival drug gangs, more than 150 outraged Nigerians dragged his body from a police hearse, attacked the officers and blocked the national highway for hours. The protest sparked an anti-Nigerian backlash among local residents, part of a growing uneasiness about the Africans" presence here, which some observers say reflects a wider trend of racism in India. Banners bearing slogans such as "Say No to Nigerians, Say No to Drugs" hung in the streets. Many said they would not rent rooms, motorcycles or scooters to Nigerians. One Goa politician said Nigerians are like cancer; another likened them to wild animals. "Soon every Goa street will be ruled by drug gangs and their political cahoots," read the headline of a column in a newspaper called the Goan. "People in Goa are reacting in a mixed and confused manner to all the changes tourism has brought," said Frederick Noronha, who runs a nonfiction publishing house called Goa 1556. The tension was exacerbated when the government ordered the arrest and deportation of all Nigerians without valid documents, triggering a diplomatic furor. Thirty-four of the 52 Nigerians arrested in the highway protest lacked valid papers, according to a state immigration official. "Indian people do not like us, some clubs say they do not want to serve us and now these calls for boycotts against us," said Joe Prince, a 31-year old Nigerian businessman who said he had not stepped out of his home in a village in Goa since the killing. We have silently suffered insults for years, but now it is out in public. Indians look at us and think "black" and "drug peddlers." " The turmoil has shaken Goa's easygoing cosmopolitan culture, which has drawn hippies from abroad since the 1960s. As tourist season gets underway, many locals are debating whether the region has paid too high a price for the tourism boom. What we are seeing now is what we have known for years. The situation did not develop overnight," said Dattesh Parulekar, an assistant professor of international relations at Goa University. So many foreigners have come here and set up local businesses, beach shacks and hotels, run the drug trade and bought up huge tracts of land. The local people have watched helplessly as their area changed, but they are also unable to extricate themselves from the profit that tourism brings.