Felicio S Fernandes
Is Goa a cash cow milked (by a few) to its last drop?
The gamut of Goa’s natural resources play a vital role in its sustainable economic development. These resources need to be judiciously harnessed in a sustainable manner so that the future generations can also avail of their advantages. The rampant over-exploitation and ruthless destruction of these resources in recent times has resulted in a colossal detrimental impact on Goa’s environment. The rising, unbearable temperatures we are experiencing nowadays has become a matter of discussions and deliberations around Goa (and India in general).
A State holds natural resources as a trustee on behalf of the people – you and me – to ensure that future generations receive the benefit of the inheritance. However, what we see is that sustainable development goals have been thrown to the winds.
There is no effective policy intervention regarding the preservation of our God given natural resources rather, there is a constant depletion and degradation of our natural resources such as the state’s Forests, its mindless Mining, the devastation of our Flora & Fauna, the squalor of our once gurgling rivers, the gratuitously given abundance of fish in polluted waters, the destruction of large plantations of fruit trees, the cruel encroachment on our evergreen fields all being done in the name of development is like shooting ourselves in
the leg.
Using Goa’s pristine and natural resources to its own detriment is the harshest and most heartless ‘Environmental Crime’ happening right below our noses. Agriculture represents life and living. Our hills are alive, water sozzled reservoirs. Our orchards are a living testament to God’s care, predilection and abundance bestowed on us with a vast variety of fruits and vegetables.
Yet, overwhelming and exploiting the system, changing and manipulating legislations to override environmental sensitivities for personal or partisan interests, making short sighted decisions for the benefit of a few godfathers and crony capitalists at the cost of larger social and environmental hazards is using resources to our own detriment. This has led to arbitrary, rampant and unbalanced land conversions.
Recently village gram sabhas in Goa have started demanding for scientific ‘Carrying Capacity’ studies in order to assess the impact of development projects on their immediate milieu. A case in point being the VPs of Varca, Benaulim, Colva (CCCF), since government departments viz. TCP, PWD and Power bend governance guidelines to favour land and moneyed sharks. These malpractices (e.g. adhoc and arbitrary land conversions of privately owned plots) in turn upset the delicate traditional and social setups in our villages creating polarities and upheavals among once peaceful populations, neighbourhoods and habitats.
In the recent past, the Supreme Court ruled that all mining after 22-Nov-2007 was fully illegal, raising the prospect of recovering some of the loot and also ordered the creation of the Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund. The estimated loss was stated to be to the tune of Rs 1,44,000 crores. (never recovered).
The TCP Dept. has paid over Rs 3 crores (State Ex Chequer’s money) to its Delhi Lawyers to fight its cases (March 13, 2025) in the recent read down Section 17(2) of the TCP Act. This is a clear case of extracting advantage at the cost of our public money and whom shall we question?
Goa the cash cow is being milked to death… Goa is being managed for cash, nay for personal gain of a few, senselessly deriving maximum benefits, squeezing and extracting as much cash out of it as possible without concern for its environmental, conservational, social, well-being or sustainability…Do we not see it? Is the State a real Trustee or a vicious vulture… should we just wait in the side-lines and watch? “Goa – because you exist I remain”