MARGAO: Even as the government has notified its proposal to declare nine wetlands in the State, at special gram sabhas held at Cana-Benaulim and Cortalim, the people welcomed the idea but expressed grave reservations over the buffer zone.
It would be relevant to point out that besides the wetland, government has proposed declaring an area of 50 mts around the water body as a buffer zone and people from these two villages objected to this.
At Cana-Benaulim. the issue was explained by representatives of the Goa State Wetland Authority and also an expert invited by the panchayat.
While Project Assistant Shruti Salgaonkar and Legal Assistant Urvashi Kanekar explained the Wetland Authorities proposal, Avinash Tavares who has been helping the panchayat in the matter of bridge over stilts also gave some additional inputs.
However, former Sarpanch Agnelo Fernandes asked whether the ground reality was assessed before the notification was issued and asserted that the situation had changed drastically around Kamala Tollem which is proposed to be declared a wetland.
He argued that a perimeter of 50 mts around the lake would cover not only the fields nearby but even plots where people have constructed houses or propose to construct houses as and when they can do so.
“I am totally in favour of declaring Kamala Tollem as a wetland, but I have severe reservations over the demarcation of buffer zone as it will be affecting people who have invested their hard earned money there,” he said and was supported by most of the villagers present.
Significantly, Sarpanch Xavier Pereira while pointing out that the panchayat was not at all consulted over this matter said it would have been better if the government had to take the local body into confidence.
Incidentally, Clemente Fernandes the acting president of Benaulim Communidade which is the owner of Kamala Tollem disclosed that even they were not consulted despite being the owners of the area.
The representatives of Goa State Wetland Authority were advised to inform the authority that the villagers welcomed the decision to declare the lake as a wetland, but had reservations over the buffer zone.
A similar situation arose at Cortalim where a special meeting was convened to discuss the proposal to declare the Vhodlem Dakte Tollem as a wetland where again the people had strong reservations to the buffer zone and demanded that the period to submit suggestions be extended.
Sarpanch Senia Pereira disclosed that they had specifically invited people who would be affected as there are around 100 dwelling houses in the area proposed to be declared a buffer zone.
The villagers were also not very happy with Urvashi and Shruti from the Goa State Wetland Authority as they could not answer some of their questions.
“In view of that we have decided to have another meeting where officials will answer all the questions of the affected people,” said Senia.
