Team Herald
PANJIM: Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira has asserted that the government is committed to providing the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) with the additional information it has sought regarding the declaration of Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas (WGESA). He confirmed that the state would respond to the recent request made by the MoEF&CC to clarify various aspects of the revised proposal, including details on specific areas to be excluded from the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) notification.
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“Our goal is to remove as many as villages as we can from the draft ESA notification. We have submitted our demands to MoEF&CC. We have tried to substantiate them. We have definitely made an effort. We had appointed former director general of forest to head the committee, which visited the State and did a detailed study,” Sequeira said
The Minister said that the government submitted the detailed report to the MoEF&CC, which in turn deputed a committee under the chairmanship of Sanjay Kumar to Goa. The officials of WGESA arrived in the State, visited the areas and verified what the government had said. The committee has now sought for additional information by a letter dated December 13, 2024.
The Environment Minister denied that there was delay on the part of the State government. “We require time to collect all the information to reply to them. Many issues involves other government departments. The ready is ready and we will reply to the MoEF&CC.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that from time to time the State government is corresponding with the MoEF&CC and the Environment Minister is continuously attending the meetings.
After the WGSEA Committee field visit in the State from November 26 to 28, 2024, the State government was asked to submit details of revised proposal with full rationale, supporting date and maps, details of any relaxation sought in the prohibited categories for specific areas and very specific purposes as presented by the Goa government during interactions including the traditional use of materials by local communities; various laws/regulations, programmes/schemes and other measures already in place and proposed to be taken by the government to protect biodiversity (flora, fauna, water, rivers/watershed and land forms) in the areas proposed to be excluded; traditional conservation measures and practices including details of sacred groves and biodiversity heritage sites, etc.
The WGESA Committee had also asked for names of rivers and their origins in Goa, their traverse (distance covered) and point of convergence with the sea (delta or other forms) and key features.
The WGSEA Committee has sought the information so as to proceed with the review and further action on the proposal.
The State government-appointed committee had already recommended dropping of 21 villages out of total 108 villagers from the sixth draft Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA).
