The cabinet decision to remove the coconut tree from the classification of trees is a mischievous and pre-planned decision to ensure that massive projects in the hotel and industrial space, are allowed to come in.
The biggest stumbling block for projects like the Golf course and villa project at Tiracol and the beer project at Sanguem, are fruit bearing trees like coconut and cashew. As long as they are classified as trees under the Tree Act, any project developer needs to go to the Forest department. And each year not more than 2 hectares of trees is allowed to be felled on the same spot. At this rate even projects allowed on forested, agricultural and green land by the all conquering Investment Promotion Board, would have to wait, till trees on those lands are removed.
Thus the government came up with a solution to ensure that those wanting to set up liquor factories, buildings or hotel projects, get land removed from all encumbrances. To do that it decided to simply do away with the amendment it made to Section 1 (A) of the Goa, Daman & Diu Preservation of Trees Act 1984, in 2008. It decided to remove the coconut from the purview of a “tree” and classify it as “palm”. In one stroke, it equated the coconut tree with grass removing it from the control and protection of the forest department.
Funnily Section 12(A) of the act which deals with how fallen trees that pose a danger to life and property should be disposed off, includes coconut in the list of fallen trees, whereas it is not in the list of standing trees.
It’s a decision that this government will deeply regret. This affects not just coconut farmers and pluckers. It’s a bigger blow to goenkarpon. Large swathes of land will be given away for mega construction alongside palm fringed roads. The trees will be felled making way for concrete. Like the way in which the IPB has been given extra constitutional powers to declare any area as an Investment Promotion area, where all laws pertaining to land use will be suspended, the Tree act amendment is the last nail in the coffin of Goa’s environment.
It can get only worse from here. Today it is the coconut tree, tomorrow it will be the cashew tree and day after the jackfruit tree. The Goan skyline will be altered, to be replaced by an ugly concrete skyline.
Goans must wake up to the fact that not a single BJP MLA or minister has opposed this, barring Alina Saldanha, who as then Environment minister had opposed it when attempts were made to drop the cashew tree from the list of “trees”. This was attempted to allow Leading Hotels, the developers of the Tiracol Golf course and villa project ,who want to cut a massive number of cashew trees in Tiracol. However she couldn’t stop the coconut tree from being dropped from the list of trees, at a time when she is no longer Environment minister.
The government should realise that it is making a serious mistake by going ahead with this change in the Tree Act to drop the coconut tree from the list of trees. When villagers fathom that this will lead to trees being cut for road widening and then clearing land for projects like alcohol factories, the backlash will be serious. But this government will be blind to people’s sentiments till it faces the real danger of being voted out in 2017.
