08 Mar 2023  |   06:47am IST

Fire breaks out in Sanguem village that rejected Goa govt’s IIT plans

The blaze was reported atop a forested mountain, which cannot be easily accessed by fire personnel; the plantations belonging to anti-IIT farmers lie at the foot of this mountain

Team Herald

SANGUEM: Even as disaster management forces struggle to douse the massive fire that has destroyed vast tracts of virgin forests and cashew plantations within the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, a fire was reported late Tuesday evening atop the mountain in Sanguem’s Cotarli village, the location the government had proposed to set up their IIT project.

The fire has begun to spread, and if no action is initiated to control it the same night, it may be devastating to the wildlife and huge old trees which have surrounded the mountain all these years.

At the foot of the mountain lie the agricultural plantations, orchards and paddy fields belonging to the villagers who had vehemently opposed the establishment of the IIT at this site.

These plantations are now at risk of the fire raging atop the mountain, which is thickly forested and inaccessible to people.

“It will be very difficult to douse the fire except with the use of aerial devices,” said environmentalist Santano Rodrigues. 

“If the fire is not extinguished at the earliest, there are possibilities of severe damage to flora and fauna. The wild animals which had made this mountain their home for generations are likely to lose their habitat as there is no other place for them to survive nearby,” added Mascarenhas, a villager.

Sanguem Municipality councillor Meshu D’Costa termed the damage to biodiversity in Goa in recent times as ‘highly unwarranted’.

Citizens are now raising questions over how only disputed sites are getting affected by man-made disasters. First it was Satre Forest in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, and now, the very spot in Sanguem where the proposed plan of the government to set up the IIT was foiled by the locals.