VISITACAO B MONTEIRO
The importance of man groves for the protec tion of our environment through the absorption of CO2 and harmful chemicals, as barriers against storms, for fish breeding and for their multiple benefits to our Earth can never be overempha sised. This is recognised by everybody and nobody will deny it, but in Goa one cannot allow them to grow in khazan lands where paddy is to be cultivated and harvested. It is surprising to observe that many activists and court petitioners who are fight ing for the conservation and growth of mangroves in Goa are blatantly ignorant about where mangroves should grow or be planted in Goa. I stress the words ‘in Goa’, be cause their place of growth outside Goa is different from that in Goa.
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If one travels through Karwar, Mangaluru and Kerala, mangroves are seen growing anywhere on river sediments, since most rivers cut through soil and mud without bund embank ments. However, in the back waters of Kerala, which were reclaimed for agriculture by Goan farmers who were tak en to Kerala in the 13th cen tury, and thereafter by the GSBs, mangroves have been grown on the riverside bor ders of bunds, exactly as they were in Goa. The Goan farmers have al ways planted mangroves on the outer border or riverside border of the bunds since their roots penetrate deeply into the soft muddy soil of the rivers (picture of mangroves on both sides of the river) and give stability to the bunds. Thus, in Goa, people of my generation (between 1933 and 1966), who lived near rivers with khazan lands, saw them growing on the outer borders or riverside of bunds and never inside the khazan lands. Our ancestral farmers formed the khazan lands by reclaiming the rivers for pad dy cultivation, horticulture in the upper reaches of the khazan lands and fishing pur poses in the rivulets. From 1966 onwards until today, we have seen man groves growing inside khaz an lands in many parts of Goa, and the last two genera tions of Goans who have seen them growing there think that this is their natural hab itat.
Consequently, they fight for their preservation and even petition the courts. It is very important that they know the truth. If they en quire with people of my gen eration, many of whom are still living, they will be told the truth. How, then, have mangroves occupied the khazan lands? The culprit is the Goa Agri cultural Tenancy Act, 1965, enforced from 1966. The Act transferred the maintenance of bunds and sluice gates, previously maintained by the Comunidades, to the Tenants’ Associations. Instead of regu lating and promoting agricul ture in Goa, the Act succeed ed only in destroying Goa’s centuries-old agricultural system. Corruption in the Tenants’ Associations led to the ne glect of bund maintenance. The sluice gate operators (Manxekars), in combination with the Mamlatdars, gave priority to pisciculture over agriculture. For this purpose, they started inundating the khazan lands with saline wa ter by breaking bunds with gelatine explosions, removing sluice gate doors or keeping them open with wooden logs and sticks fixed between the doors. As a result, mangrove seeds, which had previously been contained by the closed sluice gates during high tides, gained free entry into the khazan lands and grew there abundantly. Moreover, the inundation of khazan lands with saline water destroyed horticulture, as the ponds (hondde) in the khazan lands as well as peo ple’s drinking water wells be came saline. News reports of breaches in bunds and saline water inundation frequent ly appeared in newspapers of the time and continue to do so.
Farmers from almost every village protected by bunds have decried the in gress of saline water into khazan lands, rendering them unsuitable for paddy culti vation. Inundation of paddy fields in Carambolim, Neura, Shiroda, Kundaim, Rachol, Tivim and elsewhere has re peatedly made news over the years, but most reports and complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Then came the Forest De partment, whose Chief Con servators are mostly from outside Goa and do not know about Goa’s mangroves, and they declared them forests. So, you cannot touch them – they became untouchables. On 26 June 2016, O Heral do published a report entitled “Mangrove Growth Boosts State Forest Cover”, wherein statements by a forest official said that the State’s forest cover had increased in the previous two years by 5 sq km, of which 4 sq km com prised mangroves. The total mangrove forest cover in the State in 2016 accounted for approximately 40 sq km. I cannot say how much it is today because, since 2016, more mangrove areas on khazan lands must have come under the same classification of forests.
In recent years, we have noticed that the NGT and the Bombay High Court at Goa have passed orders for the restoration of mangroves where they have been de stroyed. Neither the petition ers nor the defendants seem to know where mangroves should grow in Goa. The courts have to be properly in formed about the habitats of mangroves in Goa. They can not occupy our khazan lands, which are meant for paddy cultivation and where Goans have grown rice for genera tions. Mangroves are present ly, in my view, illegally occu pying our khazan lands and therefore should be removed from there. A small comparison may help to understand the issue better. The Navy took over Dabolim Airport on 19 De cember 1961 and remains there to this day. In the same way, since the enforcement of the Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1965, mangroves have invad ed our khazan lands and are occupying them. Will the Goa Agriculture Department un dertake the task of removing them? (The author is a well known columnist and author of the book Goan Village Communities.)
