Team Herald
PANJIM: Activists and environmentalists on Wednesday slammed Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for recommending the removal 45 villages from Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESAs), fearing that the move would impact Goa’s environment, and accused the State government of acting as a real estate agent and benefiting outsiders rather than Goans.
Director of Goa Foundation Claude Alvares said, “The Chief Minister should not take decisions for the village gram sabhas. The gram sabhas can decide themselves. The CM has many things to do. He should not interfere in the decisions of the gram sabhas. He should not decide for the people in the villages. They can make their decisions on their own. Proper facts should be placed before them. Till today only fear is being put in their minds. None of these fears has got any basis. If proper facts are placed before people, then the whole of Goa will want to be in ESA.”
“If proper discussions are held at the ground level with all the village folks, it will be clear that we do not want the real estate projects. ESA is beneficial for all the villages and it is important for them if they want to maintain their village resources. The Chief Minister should do proper work instead of giving sermons to the public about what he is going to do. I hope that many villages will pass resolutions that they want to be in the ESA,” he said.
Environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar said, “Goa government is in a confused mind over ESA. The Centre is concerned of protecting the environment and climate change and is continuously saying that it will not change the declared ESAs. The Goa government is talking of the Wayanad disaster, but is not ready to take measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the State.”
He said, “The government’s move to withdraw 45 villages from ESA is because some of these areas have old mining leases. The government wants to withdraw them only to resume mining, sand mining and laterite quarry and transportation which will not be allowed in ESAs.”
Another environmentalist Ramesh Gauns said, “It is not possible for the Goa government to withdraw 45 villages from ESA. The government wants these areas to resume mining activity as some of these ESAs have iron ore deposits. If the government succeeds in its attempt then the Wayanad tragedy is inevitable in Goa. These areas also have medicinal plants.”
He said, “On Tuesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant attended Prachin Ayurvedic Vriksha Chikitsa and stressed on preserving these indigenous, traditional ayurvedic systems of plant and soil treatment for insects and fungal infection. Sawant should show the same interest in protecting these ecological sensitive areas. Sawant should stop his ‘Nautaki’ and should not use power to misguide and fool the people.”
Activist Swapnesh Sherlekar said, “Sawant government is actually operating as a real estate agent. ESA will be an added advantage for the villages because rapidly they are getting concretised. This is the additional protection for the villages to remain as villages. When the government says that it is recommending the removal of 45 villages from the ESA, then it should also tell us for whose benefit it is being done.”
He said, “The government is not planning for the people of Goa but it is planning for the people who are in Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR), Haryana so that these areas could be sold to them. The government should come out with the clear reason due to which it is recommending the removal of the villages from ESA declared by the Centre.”
Adv Shivaji Y Desai of Valpoi, said, “The issue of ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) needs to be discussed in gram sabhas of village panchayats. Most of the people in Goa do not know what is actually an ecological sensitive area? The government needs to put this issue in the citizens’ court and should prepare a proper survey over this. The Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary has already been declared a Tiger Reserve forest by the High Court. However, till today boundaries of this Sanctuary have not yet been fixed by the government.”