I write this article with a deep sense of shame and guilt, that I stood helpless and hopelessly and allowed my fellow Goans to be jailed for purely demanding their fundamental right for fresh air, basic water requirements and peacefully co-existence. For my guilt, Mother Nature would punish me – polluted air, contaminated water and poor quality of my life, I deserve and I humbly accept this punishment.
It is a mere matter of diversion in my evasive thinking, that their 10 days stay in jail, far away from their home in Sonshi was pleasant and far better than the choking stay back home. This is no consolation. To add a nail to their coffin of woes, their MLA of 50 years asserts, that he knows his constituents for 5 decades and more but he did precious nothing to speak or act against the gross injustice done to the victims of air and water pollution but rather aggravated their misery by allegedly enticing them into suicide by luring some of them into employment with the mining companies, who are slowly but surely killing them with polluted air and water but luring them with pittance as compensation.
The MLA as an honorable person should have known better that life and dignity are not purchasable commodities and as a graduate in agriculture he ought to have realised that agriculture and water are primary and basic to perennial livelihood. Mining disturbs and destroys agriculture, depletes water storage capacity; as aquifers are degraded for eternity.
While scientists are busy exploring planets in galaxies including our Milky Way Galaxy, for planets with water: however, in Goa including Sonshi we are discharging and wasting precious water to reach the mining belt which is under the water table – thus we force villagers and the future generations all around the mining belt to suffer from water scarcity, water pollution, agricultural droughts, famines, respiratory illness, depleted biodiversity, toxic soil, with abundance of mining rejects!! Is Mr Pratapsingh Rane, a graduate of Agriculture from USA listening? Sattari is depleting and polluting precious water.
While I appreciate the efforts of Herald for exposing the dangers of haphazardous mining and also pricking and tickling the conscience of Goans by continuously monitoring the suffering of Goans in the mining belt and egging on the Goenkars to exhibit their Goenkarponn, by standing against the heartless Goa government mining policy and maladministration, especially those officials who were responsible for jailing the agitating victims from Sonshi, by unitedly calling for a “Jail Bharo Adolan”, until destructive mining in Goa is stopped forthwith. As to why there is no buffer zone from the mining route to the residential area, so that pollution is contained is a million dollar question. Strangely, ban for alcohol vending away from highways is 500 meters – why not mining transport have a buffer zone near schools, hospitals and housing? Supreme Court needs to be petitioned thus.
Do the Goans realise particulate mining dust is adversely affecting those in the mining belt at Sonshi, and is slowly killing the locals, as over 6 mining leases including those of mining giant Vedanta are plying over 1175 trucks, making around 8,000 to 10,000 trips from the mines to the jetty where the ore from trucks is daily off loaded. The dust is in the air with PM 2.5 microns and PM 10 microns lying suspended in the air for days together thus adversely responsible for respiratory infections, eye infections, skin rashes, loss of appetite, tuberculosis, cancer, sores and slow death of the community. On an average, the distance between the mines to the jetty is around 10 km each, and around four routes for transport exists around Sonshi mines alone.
Strangely there are no monitoring station at Sonshi, where as a scientist myself assert that before mining we should have had at least 12 monitoring stations of ambient air quality mapping. From October 2016 to date the monitoring station at Honda is consistently displaying that levels of PM 2.5 & PM 10 are above limits. This monitoring was done by Ministry of Environment and Forests, approved by private agency – M/s. Bhagawati Analabs Pvt Ltd
Again Goans must ensure that pollution during transportation and mining operations are taken into account, as the average count of 24 hours is totally misleading, mining operations are at the peak for only 8 hours so by averaging the pollution levels by three-fold downwards, would exhibit readings falsely suggesting that pollution is not grave as made out by the villagers. The monitoring station at Honda is over 1.5 kms away from the transportation route and even there the levels of pollution are extremely high.
Hence it would be scientifically sound to assert that residents in Sonshi, the school children and infants are forced to inhale 25-fold higher level of mining dust at focal regions on the mining route and the government failed miserably by not compulsorily offering the locals dust – preventing face masks as an emergency measure to ensure the health of the residents.
Our Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar should have suo moto used his powers to suspend mining operations and put in place all the checks and balances required before mining activity was given consent to operate. Goans must realise that if Goenkarponn has to survive and flourish we must oppose coal imports through Vasco city and MPT, casino pollution in Mandovi and strictly regulate mining by being proactive, strictly monitoring, firmly agitating against the government which promises us all in the garb of ushering Goenkarponn.
