They146;re the catch in Ajanta

Stella name changed is annoyed. She pleads with Javed and his colleagues, who are trying to touch her to get her attention. 8216;8216;Do...

Stella name changed is annoyed. She pleads with Javed and his colleagues, who are trying to touch her to get her attention. 8216;8216;Don8217;t8230; please don8217;t8230; I don8217;t want these things8230; let me go8230;8217;8217;

Foreigners are a big catch at the Ajanta caves. The hawkers here are mostly unauthorised, but that doesn8217;t stop them from jostling tourists, trying to sell gems, books and other items. 8216;8216;Sir, take gems8230;only in India8230;I give very cheap8230;madam buy pure stone, very cheap,8217;8217; they shout as they see another batch of goras land at the base camp, near Fardapur village in Marathwada, on July 6.

We catch up with Stella. She8217;s alone and scared. 8216;8216;No name and pictures please8230;I will be in deep trouble. I8217;m shocked. When I refused to buy things they abused me. They said: 8216;We fXXX you Christian lady, you are sister of Bush who caught Saddam8217;8230;8217;8217;

8216;8216;I don8217;t expect such things to happen here, at a World Heritage site,8217;8217; she adds.

Stella8217;s experience is not unique. Scott Atkinson, a tourist from Australia, and an Israeli couple, Florence and Ahavon Arbib, filed complaints with the tourism department.

8216;8216;They threw a rock at me. There must be tolerance,8217;8217; Atikinson wrote in his complaint. He was subjected to racial abuse as well, but did not report that, according to a guide who was on duty that day. 8216;8216;Most tourists do not report such incidents for obvious reasons,8217;8217; the guide says.

8216;8216;This prevents tourists from coming very often to India. The hawkers did not let us talk to each other. They even followed us inside the caves,8217;8217; the Arbibs wrote in their complaint. They complained of breach of privacy, use of bad language and stalking.

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8216;8216;Woh gore saale harami ki aulad hain. Saddam ko pakad rakhe hain8230; agar woh humse kucch kharidte nahi to hum unko gandi gandi gaali dete hain, aur kya kare? These whites are basds. They captured Saddam. We abuse them when they don8217;t buy things from us. What do you expect us to do?8217;8217; says Imran, a hawker.

A guide informs us that fellow guide Deepak Arak was attacked when he prevented touts from troubling his client a few days ago. 8216;8216;The client was a lady 8212; Annamarie Czene, a VVIP guest of the Tourism Department,8217;8217; he says.

The problem is aggravated up the hill, some 4 km from the base camp. Only eco-friendly buses run by the State Transport ply on this route. There are no shops, except an MTDC restaurant, but there are plenty of hawkers here as well.

Chin Min and his friends from South Korea are mobbed, but manage to shoo away the troublemakers. A group of Israeli tourists is not as lucky. Having finished the trek to the caves, they try to relax under a tree, but a group of hawkers won8217;t leave them alone.

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There are no police staff or officials from the Maharashtra State Tourism Corporation MTDC and Archaeological Survey of India ASI 8212; the official caretakers of the monument.

Some ASI employees working on restoration say this kind of thing happens every day. 8216;8216;What can we do?8217;8217; they ask.

8216;8216;Why don8217;t they foreigners/ASI complain to us? The ASI should first prevent these unauthorised hawkers from entering its premises. I won8217;t mind conducting daily raids8230;I can depute a special squad for this purpose. We8217;ve taken action in the past as well,8217;8217; says Additional Superintendent of Police, Aurangabad Rural, Pravin Pawar.

Dr S.K. Mitra, superintending archaeologist, Maharashtra Circle, sits in his Aurangabad office, but refuses to speak to Express.