MARGAO: The locals of Chinchinim-Deussua, along with their panchayat, have continued to oppose the proposal of the State government to declare a water body in the village located at Durga, as a wetland.
This issue came up during the recent meeting held with farmers and other villagers while discussing the draft agricultural policy.
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While the panch of the concerned wards Gerson Gomes has accused the authorities of being at fault in the way they ‘wrongfully ‘carried out the process’, the village’s Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) Chairperson Evonne Cardozo pointed out that during the stakeholder consultation with Goa State Wetland Authority (GSWA), several objections were raised by the villagers and farmers. It was Gomes’ assertion that the authorities just used Google images without undertaking any ground survey and that fields as well as houses located in the buffer zone would get affected.
Cardozo added that they had already informed GSWA that the Durga bandh is not a lake and cannot be converted to wetland.
“The panchayat, BMC and farmers all opposed the draft notification of Durga Lake as 99% of the notified land are agricultural fields and not even 1% represents the actual water body. The area was not cultivated because of cattle menace,” Cardozo added.
Sarpanch Valentino Barretto added that one lakh square meters has been identified as a wetland and that the proposed buffer zone and zone of influence are problematic as even the Durga Chapel stands to be affected.
He added that they are prepared to go to court even and had even done a survey using a drone where it showed that what is being notified as a wetland is just a water channel known as Durga bundh, and even shown
as a water channel in the survey plans.
Barretto recalled that in the past the Water Resources Department (WRD) had built retaining walls to retain water after the kharif crops but that does not mean this area was a lake and lamented that this issue is yet to be rectified despite the numerous objections.
