Anxiety on the coast
On the southern tip of Goa’s coastline, residents of Galgibag and Talpona in Canacona have formed committees against the government’s plans, under the Forest Department, to acquire land for an interpretation centre around turtle nesting sites. Agitated villagers recently prevented a team of surveyors and forest officials from inspecting a chosen site at Galgibag, one of the State’s four notified turtle nesting sites, besides Agonda, Mandrem and Morjim.
The village of Galgibag has not been too pleased with its turtle nesting tag for some time now, even though Olive Ridley turtles have chosen the beach for their nesting sites. Villagers see the tag as a sign that they will have to forego the tourism potential and a potential money earning route as Galgibag has had no allotments of shacks on this count. A proposed land acquisition of 1.81 lakh sq m of land by the forest department under the Wildlife Act has had villagers in the area upset and resolutions passed to oppose the siting of an interpretation centre and the land acquisition. The contention of the village is that human habitats, traditional occupations and the local community cannot be secondary to turtle nesting sites ~ and all this amidst questions being raised both over the quantity of the land being sought, and its location above the high tide line and the actual nesting sites.
The forest department says its interpretation centre is meant to spread conservation awareness among locals and visitors. But clearly the villagers are not happy, going by the fact that they recently prevented a team from conducting the initial survey. The needs of conservation and growing human economic activity have traditionally clashed in many areas of Goa ~ in areas recently designated as sanctuaries and along the coastline where coastal zoning regulation rules. With much of the coastline on Goa’s middle talukas from Bardez to Salcete given over to tourism and real estate development, the beaches to Goa’s extreme northern and southern extremities present the last conservation frontier. The dichotomy is that inhabitants of these areas desire to be part of the tourism economy, see their land holdings and beachside fishing huts as a potential tourism avenue ~ one that holds the possibilities of bringing in more family revenue than the traditional occupations of fishing and farming.
It is a constant and uneasy tussle, not just in Goa, but world over ~ and the one unfolding in Mandrem where authorities cracked down recently on ten shacks and eighty huts for CRZ violations is an indicator. What has not helped the cause of conservation of either turtle habitats or the coastline in general, is that small establishments who inevitably get hit the hardest at the times when authorities do crack down, point to the larger violators and big hotels getting away unscathed; or at least they have the legal heft to endlessly challenge authorities in courts. Can conservation measures be tied in with an economic plan for places like Galgibag and Talpona? Can economic interests be combined with eco-physical conservation? Would a better exchange of information and taking an eco-systems approach ~ planning with community, stakeholders, government and conservationists ~ lead to some form of conflict resolution and a way out of the impasse in these areas?
Either way, the fate of some of Goa’s last remaining pristine beaches hang in the balance.
4 March,2013
