CAVELOSSIM: Tar balls have once again surfaced on the State’s coastline as South Goa villagers noticed the deposits of the black oily substance on the beaches.
The Cavelossim Biodiversity Committee chairman Dixon Vaz said, “The tar ball oily substance has surfaced on the coastal belt again posing lot of threat to the marine life as well as to the fishing and tourism industry. I have spoken to the South Goa Disaster Management office on Tuesday as well as to the Goa State Biodiversity Board member secretary and also written to them to hold a virtual meeting to highlight the issue.”
“I have also urged them to rope in experts such as Coast Guard and Navy as many suspect this is caused by the spilling of oil in the Arabian Sea from the vessels in that area as there is no much watch on such activities by the authorities,” he claimed.
In his letter to the Member Secretary of the Goa Biodiversity Board, Department of Science and Technology, Saligao as well as the South Goa Disaster Management Cell, Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral and the Cavelossim Panchayat, Vaz has demanded immediate remedial measures to prevent any environmental disaster.
In the letter, Dixon said, “Last few days, we have again witnessed tar balls (oily substances) surfacing on the pristine beaches of South Goa. This substance is very oily and once it is exposed to the hot sun, it is extremely dangerous for humans as well as animals moving on the beaches. This also poses a very serious threat to our tourism dependent villages as well as the fishing communities who are solely dependent on fishing as their livelihood. This damages the entire ecosystem of our coastline which is marked as CRZ-4 in the CRZ Notification 2011 which is a highly protected area under the Environment Protection Act 1986. These intertidal zones between high tide line (HTL) and low tide line (LTL) are biodiversity hot spots as we have a lot of marine species such as turtles, and ghost crabs which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.”
“Last year, the same issue was brought to the attention of the Goa Government Environment Ministry who have advised us that the matter is taken up with the NIO and other related agencies to find out the root cause of the same tar ball (oily substances) surfacing during the summer and just before the monsoon”, he said.
“We have also suggested that government should take the assistance of Goa Coast Guard and MMD, Vasco as this issue is related to the sea. Therefore, urge all departments to kindly fix a date for a joint Zoom meeting due to COVID situation and take up this issue as most urgent so that we can avoid any environmental disaster,” Dixon added.
