28 Oct 2020  |   05:18am IST

Protest! But the silence is telling

Protest! But the silence is telling

Tallulah D'Silva

It was not the first time I was in a protest. There had been protests from way back in college, to oust a principal who was abusive to female students, thereafter to help distressed women from abusive spouses, to help children who had become victims of domestic abuse and harassment, to appeal for the protection of tigers in Goa, to appeal for the protection of the environment of Goa and many more.

Pre covid months, in fact more than a year ago, there was a constant cry that I would often hear from my friends and the campaigns that they had initiated but like you, I too was in the mode of ‘I have my children to take care of, work is a priority too, ‘mhaka kiteak podlam’, why should I care and ‘it does not affect me’. While awareness drives were becoming frequent and presentations of how coal and its particulate matter is affecting all our health were also being screened in schools, like many of you, I too was procrastinating and often making excuses to care. To care for my land, my people, its environment and my state. Perhaps like you, I too was complacent that I was not yet an affected party or individual.

Then came the issue of Taleigao fields and wetlands. This was my space and my backyard. I had walked its entire extents, I had worked in its fields and waded in the typha of its wetlands. I had built a bond with the creek as a child. I had jumped on the laterite rocks on its shores and walked along the dunes on the periphery of its fields. What was its state today? In the guise of developing fallow lands, these agrarian patches were being filled up and converted into either gated colonies or were put to commercial use. I connected to my friends who were all concerned about the indiscriminate filling up of fields in Taleigao. But all our villages have fields right? What’s the big issue about saving the fields of Taleigao? Taleigao is historically known for its agrarian wealth. It has given us our food security. The wetlands along these fields are a living infrastructure allowing biodiversity to thrive and protecting the higher lands from flooding. Just a few months ago we had a meeting with the PDA officials to show them the state of the Taleigao fields. The key historic location of the ‘Konsachem fest’ was under threat from filling up with debris, garbage dumping and sewage pollution from the houses and colonies on its edges. It was visible from the apathy of the people in power why this was not addressed. Because it simply meant a calculated plan to kill the fields and capitalising on building over these. And this is not limited to only Taleigao, its happening all over Goa.

The silent protest to oppose the filling up of lush fields for a new development   a ‘second’ Panchayat ghar is now known to all. The VP representatives as well as the MLA are vehement that this is the right way forward instead of fully functioning Panchayat Ghar in the basement of the Community Center. And the farmers and civil society representatives are clear that food security, agriculture and a ‘no filling up of fields’ policy is the right way forward. Not so much for them alone but for the future custodians of the village, its children.

Our voices were heard by friends across the State and many including religious heads of many parishes and institutions vouched their support to the cause. Many social and environmental activists too joined in and added their voice of concern. We in turn heard the voices of our fellow protestors in other villages raising their voice against coal handling, expansion of port, double tracking, road widening, nationalisation of 6 rivers in Goa, new jetties, transmission line and power station and the disastrous impact all these projects would have on Goa’s fragile environment and its people.

This connection brought a synergy among us. It was as if our passion and the love for our land was bringing us all together   the diverse and many children of a wondrous mother nature.

Last week or so, we all travelled to Vasco, the hotbed on that day to share our concerns with the Deputy Collector of Mormugao on the land acquisition hearing for individual owners. It was so super to meet hundreds of villagers like us from different parts of Goa. There were youth, middle aged, seniors, professionals, lay persons, activists, veterans and whole families with 3 generations on board to join in the campaign as far as Canacona and far flung villages. We raised our voices. Goyant Kolso Naka! Period! Again you ask why? Simple. It entails destruction of our environment, pollution of our air and water, it has no benefits to our land and its people, it only spells doom to Goa and Goans while it is made a transit mechanism for corporates and governments, like parasites that feed on its host to eventually leave the State dead! How can anybody do this? How can anybody participate or be complicit in killing one’s own mother, provider, nurturer? And for what is this being done? Do you think our children and future generations need this kind of a bleak and futile future? An inheritance of annihilation? NO, for sure.

Now therefore with this ground swell of uprising where all the people of Goa are raising their voices in protests, it is becoming clear who the voices of silence belong to. While the bureaucrats, politicians, ministers and local representatives are busy making lame excuses and tall claims, their aides-in-corporates-contractors, developers, builders, architects, planners, engineers, lawyers, doctors, businesses are silent. The silence comes from being complicit. Like a partner in crime. Are you one of them? If not, it's time. Protest.

(Tallulah D'Silva is an architect and features in the Top 20 Golden Door Awards 2020 shortlist of international writers)

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar