The research project report on assessing quality of environmental impact assessment (EIA), compliance of environmental clearance (EC) conditions and adequacy of environmental management plan (EMP) of mining industry in Goa was submitted to BJP government in October 2013. The then Congress government had commissioned the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), to undertake a two-year research project, commencing April 2011.
“What Goa government has done with the report is suppressed it, just like the Union Ministry who suppressed our report on Western Ghats,” Gadgil, under whose guidance the report was drafted, said.
He said that the report is lying with the government since October 2013 but they are not making it public. “The report is based on two-year long thorough study. We have not found anything in the report that they have pointed as wrong but they are suppressing the report. I don’t know what more they can do,” Gadgil said while addressing an interactive session on ‘The Development Model India Needs’ organized by Goa University and International Centre for Goa.
The ecologist said that of the total 105 operational mines (before Supreme Court order), they managed to get EIA report of 75 mines, the proper assessment of which proved that most of the EIA are based on false information, especially on natural resources.
Citing an example, Gadgil said that the Cavrem village in Quepem, highly impacted by the mining operations, had a beautiful waterfall with spring, which was slowly drying up due to excess mining. Surprisingly the same did not figure in the EIA report of the mines operational there. “They (mining company) told me that waterfall is an illusion,” he commented.
Gadgil has urged the government to allow the Cavrem villagers to run the mine through the Village Corporation as demanded by the locals. “Government is trying to put every hurdle and suppressing the demand. I feel when BJP Prime Minister says that development is the motto of the government, then his own BJP-ruled State should take an initiative and allow villagers to run the mines,” he recommended.
