Team Herald
PANJIM: Fearing that it may not find favour with the Environment Ministry-appointed expert committee, which is likely to visit Goa this month for its verification exercise, the State government-appointed committee has finally climbed down on its earlier stance by now recommending the exclusion of 21 villages of the total 108 from the draft Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA). It is pertinent to note that even after the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) issued the 6th draft notification on July 31, this year, listing 108 villages in Goa spread across 1,461 km of the Western Ghats as ESAs, the State government was resolute in dropping 47 villages from the list. Of the 108 villages, 64 were listed in North Goa and 44 in South Goa. But the government-appointed committee headed by former director general of Indian Institute of Forestry Devendra Pandey has now reduced the list to 21 villages. To examine and views and objections of five State governments, the MoEF&CC-appointed expert committee headed by former Director General of Forest Sanjay Kumar, is likely to visit the State in the third week of November, in order to verify whether the request of the State government to drop 21 villages marked as ESAis justified.