Since 2010, we have been working on creating awareness to
preserve and restore Mother Nature under the project Live Happy, an NGO in
Assagao. We are managing the waste and since that time. There was no solution
to waste management provided to the people; they used to throw the waste on no
man’s land. The youth and people of the village as a community used to clean
the place and create awareness through hoardings, music, songs and art. We
visited school, colleges, universities and created awareness and a therapeutic
session through yoga, meditation and dancing so that students can understand
how dangerous it is when you throw plastic on the land. We went house to house
collecting waste and create awareness to stop them from throwing waste in the
local canal and the same water flows into the Arabian Sea. Till date, we have
collected 2,000 tonnes of waste, which has been scientifically disposed,
recycled or reused.
FELLY
GOMES, FOUNDER, Live Happy, Assagao
I believe that god has blessed us with good environment and we
are supposed to take care of it. I try to save it in whatever way I can. I take
immediate objection to those who indulge in cutting trees and polluting water.
For me, World Environment Day is every day. Officials take to the dais on World
Environment Day but these are the same people who give special permission to
cut trees and whenever complaints are brought to them, they give a blind eye
and don’t act on those complaints. This is of great concern to me as well as to
the people who are trying to save environment. Builders don’t mind paying Rs
100-200 to cut the tree. Rules, laws and acts have to be stricter.
ROSHAN
MATHIAS, social activist,
Candolim
I was a research scientist working for a pharmaceuticals
company, travelling all over India before coming back to Goa. It was not the
same Goa that I had left behind in my childhood. There were heaps of garbage
and plastic everywhere. I was a student of Fr Bismarque Dias, a real life
teacher, who thought me how to file court cases and RTI against government. I
founded a musical group known as Musical Warrior, which was the first
enterprise for filing court cases. We started spreading messages on land
grabbing, damage caused to the environment through the medium of music and by
performing musical protests.
SANDEEP
DALVI, Environment activist,
Corlim-Old Goa
With inputs by Gunjal Patel
