The Forest Survey of India (FSI) released the India State of Forest Report 2021 in January this year. The report stated that off the 3,702 sq kms of total geographical area of Goa, about 2,488 sq kms was covered with very dense forest, moderately dense forests, open forest or tree cover – small patches outside the forests.
However, in the same report the FSI expresses that by 2030, 671 sq kms of Goa’s forest and tree cover is expected to be adversely impacted by climate change. And by 2050, the entire forest and tree cover in the State is likely to face ‘high’ severity of climate change.
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Despite this warning, Goa government has amended the Goa Preservation of Trees Act, 1984, earlier this month and relieved the Department of Forest from carrying out tree survey. The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court in response to a PIL castigated the government, and a census was initiated in April this year. Therefore, if completed, it would be the only census of the trees in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COP26 in Glascow last year gave the mantra, LIFE – ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ – as a key to combating climate change. And one of the commitments of India to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the creation of additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
On the other hand, NGOs in Goa have been fighting tooth and nail to preserve the environment of the state and opposed the linear projects affecting the green cover of the state, even as the Forest Minister has gone on record to state that he ‘does not need the advice of NGOs and environmentalist’.
After the activists approached the judiciary, the Supreme Court directed the state to ensure that no trees are felled for the Tamnar Power project. Locals along the railway corridor of South Western Railway (SWR) from Castlerock to Vasco-da-Gama are still up-in-arms against the double tracking project.
From hinterland to coasts, the State government has been dragging its feet on preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) based on the Coastal Regulation Zone notified in 2019. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had pointed out in April this year that Goa is the only state that has not commenced the process to prepare the CZMP.
Further, in July this year, the government announced that the subsidy scheme for purchase of electric vehicles (EVs) launched in December last year will be discontinued from August 1, 2022.
The fate of the solar power policy is not much different. Despite the policy announcement in 2017, over the last five years there have been proposals one after the other, but the Power Department has not been able to execute the solar panel policy on the rooftops of its own buildings.
To top it all, what had been the backbone of Goa’s economy, mining, the Chief Minister has been assuring the mining dependents over the years that a sustainable solution to mining activities is on the cards and yet, despite repeated demands from various quarters of the stakeholders, the government has failed to come-up with a mining policy.
It’s one thing to have a gala fanfare and in full public view exchange a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a spiritual leader-turned-environmentalist, but another to take up the matter seriously and manoeuvre the various options to mitigate the catastrophe of climate change.
The Government of the day needs to realise that inorder to hand over sustainable piece of land of 3,702 sq kms to the future generations, it is of utmost urgency that our priorities are set forth in the right direction. Going by short term losses, Rs 90 crore for tree census may seem ‘too expensive’, but with logic of informed policy designing, the same amount will reap benefits for decades to come and generations to follow.
Actions speak louder than words, and the decisions of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet will be witness unto Goans of the plans for the present and future of the land of sea, sand and forests.
