“The culture of Goa is
born out of its environmental blessing and the local community should be made
an active part of its development,” maintains renowned environmental activist
and founding editor of Sanctuary, Bittu Saghal, who is saddened to see the
depletion of a state once so abundantly blessed.
Inspired by the spirit of
the Goan people, he urges them to take active part in the conservation of their
environment. “Nature is inspiring to give us happiness. Do not import false
happiness,” he reiterates. “Goa has a wealth of natural resources in terms of
mangroves (which is like armour for Goa), its forest, its wetlands and
coastline and in an era of climatic changes, Goa has these environmental assets
to survive and feed its people,” he adds.
But Goa’s determination to
oversell in terms of mining and tourism is working against the very nature that
seeks to enrich it. “We all need mining. Not to consume us but to serve us. We
need to have the right ambition. If we need to build a dam, we can tap the old
mines. This way we can give back to nature. A revision of the mining policy so
that it protects the eco-system is the vital need of the hour. Illegal mining
should be dealt with severely. Now with mining, the flipside is tourism which
has also already reached a point of un-sustainability,” he says while
maintaining that the local community needs to be necessarily involved and have
a stake in the development plans and all stakeholders need to work in
conjunction rather than in opposition towards the common goal. “I look at Goa
as an intensive conservation unit that is in harm’s way which needs to be given
a rest. It needs to go back to its roots, to bring back the goodness of nature
to its folds.”
Elated that Goans are
making concerted efforts towards conserving their environment, he is confident
that Goa can be an example to the rest of India. However, he cautions that for
any citizens group to be effective, efforts should be followed through a
continuous effort and perpetual alertness. “Each of us can expose the wrong
doings, join groups, collect and share credible proof and information; activate
the use of social and other media.”
Seeing the response to the
environment film-making in Goa, Saghal expressed a desire to hold a Goa Film
Festival in Mumbai.
