AMITA KANEKAR
The title of this essay is from something that I came across on the net a while ago, whose author I unfortunately can not remember. It of course refers to global warming and the fact that things are getting hotter, so if you are sweltering in Goa’s record temperatures this May, they are going to be worse next May. Much, much, worse, given the kind of government we have. This summer – not yet over – has already been deadly. Meteorologists claimed that dozens or more heat records were broken practically every day in April – in Goa too – which is not even the hottest month of summer. Maharashtra, West Bengal and other states started to report heatstroke cases and even deaths in March itself. According to the journal Down to Earth, 2026 has already become a record year for wildfires all over the world, includ ing India, caused by high temperatures, and caus ing even higher ones.
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The war in the Gulf region is contributing too, given the gigantic explosions, fires and smoke caused by the expending of reportedly hundreds of billions of dol lars’ worth of bombs, mis siles, and other weapons of mass destruction. In Goa, the media began to report lower levels than normal in the state’s water reservoirs, a grim issue especially given that El Niňo is expected this year, a weather pattern that usually produces a poor monsoon. Then, on April 28, came a report from the United States’ Air Quality Index (AQI), of what they called an unprecedent ed event: the world’s 100 hottest towns were all in one country, India. This apparently made the Un ion Government wake up. The Union Health Ministry issued a nationwide alert the very next day, warning of intense and above-nor mal heat waves between April and June 2026. Ac cording to the warning, governments of states and union territories should take steps to deal with the extreme weather, includ ing ensuring heat stroke management facilities, ambulance readiness and life-saving medicines. The issue is however, not just about reacting to the fallout of warming, but preventing it. Given this, I totally support the idea that Indians should consume less, especially use less fuel and travel by public transport, put forth by the Prime Minister a few days ago.
The prob lem, though, is that the PM made this appeal on a day when he himself was flying around the country by pri vate jet, and then travelling in long cavalcades of big foreign cars. Critics also pointed to his forthcom ing ‘five-nation-tour’, a gi ant waste of public money again, since international discussions can just as well be done nowadays over the telephone or internet. The embarrassed declara tion the next day that he would cut his cavalcade – followed by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s declaration that he would do the same – only begs the question of why they needed cavalcades in the first place. Shouldn’t you anyway be trying to use minimal resources, espe cially in a country like In dia where a lot of people live in poverty? What is even worse is that the union government has now clarified that no development work will be affected by the PM’s appeal. So what change are we talking about? Just personal choices? What about the bigger picture – like reducing the killer heat? Goa actually has a Department of Environ ment and Climate Change, which doesn’t seem to be making any difference at all because nobody wants to interfere with ‘develop ment’. Even the Supreme Court was found recently criticising environmental ism as anti-development.
While hearing a plea chal lenging the permission giv en by the National Green Tribunal for the expansion of Pipavav port, the court apparently said, “Show us a single project in India where these environmen talists have said we wel come this…”. Construction projects thus continue all over Goa, using huge amounts of wa ter and generating clouds of cement dust. Hillsides are being cut everywhere you turn, and all their trees axed, depleting top soil as well as underground water, and adding to the heat. Thousands of trees have fallen to road-widen ing projects, e.g. 612 trees just for the Porvorim flyo ver project; others fall to ‘beautification’ projects that pour cement tightly around them – as every where in Panjim. Every one of the multitudes of residential projects now adays comes with person al swimming pools, with Goan villages now boast ing swimming-pool-repair services, even as cities and villages get piped water for barely an hour a day; some only once in two days. Where does the water for all these pools come from? Where else but from the – privatised and unregulat ed, but – roaring business of borewells which pump out water from agricul tural villages like Talei gao, robbing their fields and wells to send it to the “live-your-dream-life” vil las and gated colonies all around Tiswadi and Bar dez, including Taleigao itself. Yes. Even as China is apparently planting new forests over desert, this luxury-encouraging and environmentally-insane project of turning Goa into a desert continues at breakneck pace. Ordinary Goans are hence not only dealing with intense heat, and with erratic supply and breakdowns of both water supply and elec tricity, but are also being forced to come out against even more destructive projects.
Like the gigantic land-grabbing projects by high and mighty builders, which includes multiple villas with not only swim ming pools but even an artificial beach, in an area already facing water short ages. What choice do the locals have but to try and stop this madness? So they approach the village au thorities, their local MLAs, and the courts too, often only to be threatened or met with FIRs. If there is no response from all these Constitutional authorities, they have no other option but to come on the streets, facing further harassment. Perhaps the author ities need to lose their air-conditioning. Ignoring the environmental disas ter all around us is surely only possible if one leads a cushioned life, protect ed by high walls, powerful vehicles, guaranteed wa ter and other amenities, and cooled and purified air. Losing these comforts might literally awaken them to the burning reali ties of today. (Amita Kanekar is an architectural historian and novelist)
