Wherever you go in this, once peaceful land, you will now be confronted with a view of the skyline ever a changing. Not for the better, but radically for the worse. Improperly planned, non-aesthetic and quite often, illegal (in cahoots with local honchos) concrete and laterite stone structures sprout randomly, silently destroying God’s Gift of ‘Amchem Sobith Goa’ to Goans and other respectable residents.
The gross impropriety is so very noticeable, especially in the prime Goan agricultural fields and orchards, that still can, very much put bread on the family table of every Goan family. It is truly shameful and most certainly unacceptable that we should be importing our daily needs of edible greens, grains and farm produce from neighboring states, when we factually have vast fertile and cultivable agricultural land and orchards in our own backyard. Lack of water is no excuse, as God given annual rains are in abundance and can be easily harnessed and harvested for various types of irrigation and ground recharging.
Here again, it is the authority that has to take the blame for the cuss behavior of turning a blind eye to the terrible destruction of our scenic and beautiful divine gift of clean atmosphere and habitat, which has also brought about an increase in chronic diseases as well as a change in lifestyles to the negative.
Pondering over my childhood days, I often recollect walking daily on bandhs (levees) in khazan lands, just to get to school and back, between Assonora and Aldona, via a phobic river crossing by unstable canoe (no swimmer then), come rain or sun. The lengthy distance appeared to be a snap and a refresher, whilst the imposing view and scenic beauty of endless, evergreen fields, with small pockets of family workers greeting and so lovingly tending to their food crops, diverted the mind away from the grueling walk and band muck that often stained the shirt, shorts and shoddy bare feet.
Much of this cultivable land, spread far and wide, all over Goa, has been lying fallow and also shamefully abused, since decades. The wilderness too is slowly creeping into it, with the hand of man further grossly destroying it for selfish personal gain. With modern technology, all the untended fertile fields and orchard lands could be brought under one single umbrella for cultivating and making Goa, a sizeable breadbasket of a greater India.The first important step would have to be, is the establishment of a reputable University of Agriculture in Goa itself, where specific world renowned educationists and faculty members could be invited for consultation, mobilization, etc. The entire project could be the responsibility of this Institution that would soon thereafter, churn out graduates to also take up the task. This initial step will help Goa emulate Holland, Ireland and Israel, some day. Dairy farming, milk, yoghurt and cheese-making and other related industries would quickly develop and generate jobs and skills that will put a smile on every Goan face.
