PANJIM: Contrary to the central committee’s identification of 97 villages as eco-sensitive areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats, the State government has proposed just 32 villages in the zone.
As per State government’s physical demarcation, only 32 villages covering four talukas – Sattari, Sanguem, Dharbandora and Canacona – can be included in their entirety as ESA. Of the remaining 48 villages, only those portions in proximity to protected areas, like wildlife sanctuaries, can be included as ESAs. The government has excluded 17 villages from the MoEF list for being “erroneous” entries.
With the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF) having invited comments from five States – Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat – the Goa Government submitted its proposal, as directed by the Ministry, by undertaking a physical demarcation of the 97 villages identified by the High Level Working Group of MoEF headed by Dr Kasturirangan Committee.
“The proposed area for Ecological Sensitive Areas as per Dr Kasturirangan Committee Report is 1461 sq.kms. If one peruses the figures vis-à-vis the land sought to be notified as Ecological Sensitive Areas, then the State of Goa would hardly have enough space to breathe for the sons of its soil in the years to come,” the report drafted by the State Environment Department, states.
“There is no dispute with regards to the fact of having an equilibrium between ecology and development which has been coined as ‘sustainable development’, but the declaration of ESA would not give any opportunity of development to keep pace with the growing needs to compete with the developed states and developed countries, which once again touches the bottom line of the report which is unacceptable,” it added.
The High Level Working Group in its report submitted in 2014 had divided Goa’s Western Ghat region into three talukas identifying 99 villages – Sattari (56), Sanguem (38) and Canacona (3). However, the State later divided Sanguem taluka into Sanguem and Dharbandora in 2015.
As per the demarcation undertaken by the State appointed committees, in Sattari 13 villages can be considered as ESA in whole while another 28 villages can be included partly. The committee has excluded 14 villages including Valpoi town, which were wrongly included in the taluka and some of the villages listed don’t exist.
In the case of Sanguem, it has listed 11 villages under ESA fully, with another 13 villages to be included partly. Here too, one village has been excluded citing erroneous entry. In the newly formed Dharbandora taluka with 13 villages falling in the Western Ghats region, four have been identified as ESA while in the case of nine villages, only one portion can be included. As far as Canacona in concerned, the Committee has listed only two villages under ESA.
The Central Government convened a meeting with the Members of Parliament of the Western Ghats region on August 11, 2016 where it was decided that the draft notification dated September 4, 2015 would be the basis for further discussion to finalise the ESA for the respective States and accordingly, fresh inputs have been invited from the stakeholders.
