Ohm! The torrential rains, overflowing rivers, series of landslides, the crumbling down of houses, the roads washed; the dam waters…..the wreckage, the desolation! Was witnessed and has left those in leadership, the makers of law and those who amend too laws with ulterior motives. Last year the alarm bells were rang to take stock of loopholes and those that needed to be addressed. Much was written and said about the environmental report from Madhav Gadgil after his predictions for Kerala! Whether our State was prepared and guarded was seen in the last week and the victims assured of compensations! Can these compensations make up for the loss of human life and the ordeal one has gone through?
Over these last five years the State has been busy with development projects minus the greater needs of the State. The small State equal to one of the districts of Maharashtra or Karnataka cannot fend for itself even one of its basic needs and is totally depended on the neighbouring States as the closure of highways due to landslides has exposed the vulnerability of the State!
Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself. But with our greed and self-centredness we have broken these three vital relationships, both outwardly and within us.
Having witnessed the loss of damage to person, things, nature, last year in Kerala, much was written and debated. The report of environmentalist Madhav Gadgil pointed out that in Goa alone, there are over half of the 300-odd mining leases which are located close to water bodies of which several of the 182 mining leases exist within one km of a major irrigation project, the Selaulim dam, which provides drinking water to six lakh people in south Goa, virtually half the population of Goa. This pegs the question – will Selaulim someday face the same scenario as Idukki dam? The report had already attributed the flooding of rivers in Bicholim and Sanquelim to sedimentation of river beds caused due to mining dumps and loading of barges along the river banks.
While indicating that these changes damage the ecology, the report recommends that change in land use should not be permitted from forest to non-forest uses or agricultural to non-agricultural, except … areas to accommodate the increase in the population of local residents.
The impact of development and deforestation is a death trap, the expressways, (NH66), the bridges, the flyovers, is murder and rape like situation of mother earth not only in Goa but throughout India; this has invited calamity, ruin, by going against the Nature. The development which the government speaks is at the cost of our Common Home; the mother earth is groaning in pain.
The earth, nature, sky and sea are shouting aloud! Can we see and find God in the present circumstances? Yes, even in these tryst situations, the capacity to see and hear the sea, sky and nature speak. He is very much present speaking to us through these calamities and invites us to look into the wrong doings and take action!
