05 Jun 2018  |   06:05am IST

Popping up all over the place

Mangroves are meant to be nature’s guards against its excesses but they seem to have taken a life all of their own popping up in the middle of fields in Divar causing great damage
Popping up all over the place

BASURI DESAI

In the year 2014 the people of Divar island had witnessed the arrest of the contractor engaged in cleaning and cutting of mangrove trees by the Bangalore based hospitality company. However four years down the line the villagers have seen their own paddy fields  completely destroyed by the growth of mangrove plants in the fields. 

For the villagers, mangroves were life saving, elderly claim the plants were planted at the border of village and banks of the river by their   ancestors to prevent the village from floods and any giant waves from the river Mandovi. But the same mangroves have been spread across the cultivable land and the fields are full with mangroves due to the destruction of bandhs caused by the rampant movement of speed boats in the river basin. 

On the one hand the hospitality company has destroyed the mangrove plant at the bank of the river for the smooth movement of their speed boats and on the other hand the saline water has entered the fields which have led to the destruction of the paddy fields. 

Thousands of mangrove plants have been destroyed at the river bank of Mandovi of the Divar island in jurisdiction of Goltim-Navelim village panchayat. The mud of marshy land has been excavated and cleared the way in the basin of backwaters. 

Locals have complained the destruction of mangroves has led to saline water entering the fields in the village. The second most oft reason cited is the greed of the sluice gate operators to catch fish. They allow the saline water to flow in all day causing huge losses to farmers.  

The destruction of the mangrove is one of the environmental aspect which is been violated at the bank of river Mandovi by the private company for development of tourism project.        

Thomas Rodrigues, a villager from Divar said that the entire destruction of ecology is been carried out of the private company and the sluice gate operators in the village. 

“Bandh were damaged due to the speeding boats of the said company and water started logging inside the fields. Today almost two kilometres stretch of the fields from Bangd is converted into thick mangrove forest due to the negligence”, he said. 

Salvador Silveira, another resident of island who is also a farmer said the fields had started deteriorating ten years ago and it was now completely uncultivable due to mangrove plants. 

He said that nearly 700 – 800 farmers were now affected.  

“Despite having enough land for cultivation we cannot cultivate the paddy and other agricultural crop. Our village was complete self-sustainable in terms of vegetables and rice but now it is just the  opposite”, he said. 

August D’Silva an elderly lady from Divar said the village was facing major problems due to the destruction of mangrove and Bandh. Both the issues has major dent over the environment and ecology in the village, she said. 

Mangesh Priolkar said he has paddy fields at three different places but at only place he can cultivate it now and remaining two were under a carpet of mangrove. 

Hilario Siqueira demanded that further destruction of mangrove should be stopped and the government should reclaim the agricultural fields in the village. 

“We want our village to be safe from any calamity as it is an island surrounded by water on all sides. Secondly, we want to cultivate our fields and it is expected from Government to reclaim the land”, he said.      

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar