The Environment Impact Assessment and the Environment Management Plan, finally submitted for the Mopa international airport project, has the devil in the fine print. The study done by Engineers India ltd (who claim to be accredited by the Quality Council of India but there isn’t evidence of them being accredited by MOEF), makes some surprising revelations about the project, which, to anyone who is aware of ground realities, is downright shocking.
But before we go into aspects of the EIA and EMP, which will now have to be placed for a public hearing and then sent to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, we need clarity about the company which has carried out the EIA- Engineers India Limited (EIL). The company is a Navratna public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas set up in 1965 to provide engineering and related technical services for petroleum refineries and other industrial projects.
No-where in its public record, is there mention of them being qualified to do environmental impact assessments for airport projects or any projects for that matter by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Therefore the very genesis of this EIA deserves to be questioned.
Meanwhile, certain points in the EIA on critical issues like water availability raise serious concerns. It states that water required for the construction phase will be sourced from the Tillari Irrigation Canal. It further states that water required for the airport during Phase 1 will also be sourced from this canal.
Lest anyone misses the point, the Tillari Irrigation Canal, as the name suggests is an irrigation project designed to give water to the parched lands of north Goa for farming and allied activity. It’s another matter the project has stuttered and stopped and again struggled to start. Moreover, at no point of time during the planning process of the Mopa airport was it revealed that the Tillari waters meant for irrigation would be used for the airport. This begs the question– Were the Tillari project authorities, a joint venture of Goa and Maharashtra, informed about the usage of water for the Mopa airport?
The Tillari dam project is fundamentally an irrigation project. Its website states: In addition to the provision for irrigation requirement provision for water supply to industrial and drinking purpose in Goa to the extent of 57.43 MCM, is made in this project”. It further adds “Hydel power generation is also contemplated in the project from the storage, through the irrigation cum power outlet tunnel.”
This massive diversion for an airport project will obviously deplete water availability for irrigation, drinking water and hydel power. The manner in which this the water usage for Mopa has popped up in the EIA report is shocking and smacks of nothing less than deceit.
But this is not all. It arrives at surprising conclusions which contradict facts that Engineers India Limited have themselves found. Check this. It states that 385 species of plants, 88 species of birds, 33 butterfly species, 5 amphibian species,12 reptile species and 11 mammal species are documented in the area. And then it quickly adds that the Pernem taluka has not been included in ecologically sensitive areas by the high- level working group. Again there is no sense of clarity on the local standi and powers of this group. But there’s a bigger shock that awaits. Having detailed the number of plants, bird, butterfly, reptile and mammal species, it states “The area required for the proposed airport has only a few trees, mainly bushes”. How does it explain the presence of 385 plant species, with only a “few trees, mainly bushes”?
The observations which can only be termed bizarre because of the huge gap between imagination and reality, with the EIA report firmly on the side of imagination, continue through the report. Check this. “14 houses need to be displaced and the R and R policy of the government of Goa to be followed”. The government has issued hundreds of compensation cheques to the displaced most of them with homes. The figure of 14 is a clear farce. Moreover why should the R and R policy of the Government of Goa be followed and not the government of India’s? Quite clearly because the new central land acquisition act has far higher levels of compensation than what the Goa government has proposed.
The EIA is an important management tool for ensuring optimal use of natural resources for sustainable development. But this EIA seeks to ignore information about ground resources and conjure imaginary situations and facts to clear this project.
This EIA is false and misleading and should be shot down by the affected public of Pernem.
