Team Herald
PANJIM: Despite fierce opposition from environmentalists to drop villages from the Centre’s list of Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESA) of the Western Ghats, the State government on Wednesday stated that it would desire to drop as many villages as it could from the ESA list.
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In the draft Western Ghats ESA notification issued in July this year, the Centre had marked 108 villages in Goa as ESAs even as the State government had requested the Centre to exclude 40 villages from the list.
Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira said that the State government will submit before the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) a list of 21 villages that it would want to be dropped from the ESA list.
He said this after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant held a meeting with the Central government appointed expert committee on Western Ghats, currently in the State examining views and objections of the State governments on Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESAs).
According to the State government’s proposal, 21 villages include 12 from Sattari taluka, five from Dharbandora taluka, three from Sanguem taluka and one from Canacona taluka.
Of the total 87 villages proposed under ESA categories, as many as 51 villages were from Sattari taluka, 23 from Sanguem taluka, eight from Dharbandora, four from Canacona and one from Ponda taluka.
The MoEF&CC, in its draft notification, issued in August this year, had proposed inclusion of 108 villages from Goa in the ESA list.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the 10-member expert committee headed by former Director General of Forests, Dr Sanjay Kumar visited some of the ESAs of Western Ghats for ground verification.
“We had suggested that an expert team should visit Goa and do verification of proposed eco-sensitive areas and then we will sit together and decide. But at the end of the day it will be the Government of India that will take a decision,” Sequeira said.
Allaying the apprehension of the people, Sequeira further said that the declaration of ESA does not mean that anyone will be made to vacate his house.
“Some without knowing the issue are talking on this subject and that is why there is anxiety in the minds of people. However, there are certain restrictions such as mining, which will have to be phased out within a period of five years and no fresh mining will be allowed in these villages,” he said.
“We raised certain issues about minor minerals like laterite stones and basalt from these areas. In the past, Goa was dependent on Karnataka for sand and suddenly the Karnataka government declared a ban on sand exported from Goa. If mining minerals are stopped then we would be at the mercy of other States. We don’t want that situation,” the minister said.
