Team Herald
vasco: Environmentalist from Chicalim have sought the intervention of the State government, Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB), the Chicalim and Sancoale Biodiversity Management Committees(BMC) and the police to stop the exploitation of the eco-sensitive Zuari bay before people lose it forever to obscurity and history.
In a statement issued by Cyril Fernandes, Chicalim BMC member, he warned that the ecology of the Zuari Bay is set to face another assault.
“The coming low tide this week, beginning from May 21 upto May 24, might bring doom for the endangered Zauri bay. The last two low tides of the season in the first week of May and later in the mid second week saw people bludgeon the water body to satisfy their greed for this sea-food delicacy. Hundreds and thousands of local residents from Chicalim, Dabolim, Zorinto, Sancoale, Cortalim, Quellossim, Thane, Consua, Cuelim and Bogmalo among others ransacked the river bed of the Zauri bay to collect these ‘Calvam Haddes’, he added.
Furthermore, Fernandes mentioned that the third phase of low tide is scheduled to take place this week onwards from May 20 to May 24. “With a fresh crop of Haddes emerging, the locals may once again approach the low waters to forage them from the site and take home for extraction and consumption. It could lead to the final blow on this natural breeding habitat hotspot and cause the complete destruction of the bi-valve species” he opined.
Cyril added the clams of this water body, breed around the shells formations, formed of limestone called in local language as ‘Calvam Hadde’. “The ‘Haddeor Haddes’ are a natural formations of shells, which take the shape similar to rocks and help grow the oysters within its shell body. In normal circumstances, the shell cover is opened by the extractors at site with a hook- like instrument and the oysters extracted. The remains of the empty shell are left in the water body’s eco-system. The empty shells or the mother shell is essential for the fresh breeding of the oysters. But this low tide season saw the carrying away from the bay the entire Haddes (shells) by the locals to their homes. Instead of extracting the oysters at site, the locals uprooted the Haddes from the river bed and carried them home to extract it at their residences. This horrible action by hundreds of the locals has emptied the riverbed of this precious living organism that helps the bio-diversity of the riverbed”, Fernandes revealed.
“While everyone appreciated that the Chicalim BMC and GSBB had intervened to protect the Chicalim bay form the exploitation of Tisreos, this theft of the natural Haddes taking place at Zorinto in Sancoale bay escaped the eyes of the authorities” Fernandes added.
