Team Herald
PANJIM: Environmentalists and eco warriors have welcomed the reissuance of the sixth draft notification declaring over 56,800 square kilometres of the Western Ghats across six States, including 1,461 square kilometres in Goa as ecological sensitive areas. However, NGO Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares was circumspect. He said “This is the sixth time they (MoEF&CC) have done so. They are just trying to fool people. They issued it in July and the Wayanad incident took place in August. They have excluded Kerala. This is the stupidity of MoEF&CC. They have excluded areas which have had repeated disasters and included other places.”
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In the draft Western Ghats ESA notification, the Centre has marked 108 villages in Goa as ecologically sensitive areas even as the Sawant government has requested the Centre to exclude 40 villages from eco-sensitive areas.
Of the 108 villages, 64 are in North Goa and 44 in South Goa district.
Environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar said, “This draft Western Ghats ESA notification was needed much earlier looking at the erratic rainfall and the massive climatic changes affecting the pattern and the need to protect densely forested areas, which are sources of drinking water and life-sustaining oxygen. This will help us to live a happy and peaceful life by restraining the soil erosion.”
According to Kerkar, Himalaya had already been proved as fragile and became the target of landslides and earthquake and now the recent Wayanad landslides drastically revealed that the oldest mountain range was turning fragile and weak.
“We have a clear example of Wayanad when land use pattern changed for facilitating cash crops. People in that area paid a heavy price. We want to protect Goa not for us but for future generations,” Kerkar said.
We have said that the whole of Goa should be declared an eco-sensitive area. Because the whole of Goa is too precious to give to the stupid industries. Thermal power plants, iron and steel, mining, big housing estates, all should be banned and the only way of doing that is declaring whole Goa as an eco-sensitive area. That solves our problem. All village panchayats should adopt gram sabha resolutions in all the villages and explain to them what it means. There will be no mining and no large-scale housing, no large-scale industries if gram sabhas pass resolutions. We demand that not 108 but all 192 villages should be declared eco-sensitive areas because even the government has said that it wants to protect villages. Tourists come to Goa not to see a repeat of Mumbai or Delhi, but Goa which is in villages. And you have to protect the villages and the only way of doing that is to declare villages as eco-sensitive areas. But the notification of the Union Ministry is a complete attempt to fool the people,” Alvares said.
Environmentalist Ramesh Gauns said, “Better late than never. The Wayanad landslide is an eye-opener and Madhav Gadgil report had named Kerala as an eco-sensitive area and had also warned against activities like construction in eco-sensitive areas of the Western Ghats. Entire Himalayas and Western Ghats are highly sensitive areas. Don’t play with nature. Development is not the ultimate thing. We must understand what development is and learn from environmentalists.”
Adv John Fernandes of Quepem, said, “We had submitted our suggestions to the Madhav Gadgil panel in Goa, a few years back. Notifying Western Ghats as eco-sensitive areas is the need of the hour as far as Goa is concerned. In the past mining activity was rampant even in the catchment area of Selaulim Dam. A minor landslide was reported at Codli mines in the past. If these activities are not stopped then we too will face tragedy like Wayanad landslides.”
Adv Fernandes said that politicians were more concerned about short-term gains than long-term gains. The politicians are keeping these short-term gains and materialistic gains in their minds and are misguiding people. Notifying areas in Western Ghats as ESA will be for the betterment of people residing there and Goa in general.
The government in October last year had requested the Central Environment Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to exclude 40 villages from ecologically sensitive areas.
