In March this year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a stop work order on the garbage treatment plant behind the Hira Petrol Pump located on the outskirts of Panjim. The area of the proposed garbage treatment plant is an important mangrove area with salt pans not too far away from it.
A perusal of Google Earth images from 2003 to 2015 reveals a disturbing trend in this mangrove region of Panjim. The early pictures show a dense mangrove forest within a large lagoon. Though reclamation of land had begun, the changes are stark and clear by March 2015.
The 12-year period has not only seen the area filled up but has also seen mangrove trees uprooted and a steel structure where the plant is to be built. With the NGT order, however, no work is now being allowed to continue.
But the damage has already been done. In December 2014 worried of the impact the project will have on the surroundings, activist Kashinath Shetye filed complaints with the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) and the police. But with little or no reaction from them, he resorted to the NGT.
“I had filed complaints with the GCZMA and police. Had even asked for an FIR to be filed but with nothing being done about it, I was forced to file a petition with the NGT,” Shetye said.
He said the main reason he had filed the complaint was because of “clear signs of cutting mangroves and filing of salt pans”.
The area falls in a CRZ zone, and going by the CRZ rules is a violation of the CRZ 1991. The office of the Deputy Town Planner confirmed the filling of the water body and that no permissions were obtained from the Town and Country Planning (TCP). The GCZMA too has neither approved nor granted any permission for filling or reclamation of the water body or mangrove lagoon.
Retired scientist Antonio Mascarenhas who has been working on cases and is part of the GCZMA said, “This reclamation of land is unprecedented and unscientific. There is no justification for what was done. This area should be considered an asset to the city. There are few or no cities in India that have an ecosystem like this. It is unique to Goa. Why not convert it into a marine park or a biotech park. What is the point of having a garbage plant there?”
In his report to GCZMA, Mascarenhas noted that according to the CRZ regulations, the No Development Zone measured from the High Tide Line is superfluous since “the human activity of mud filling has infringed upon and into the lagoon. The new land that is created is thus surrounded by saline water on all sides.”
He also said that considering the reclaimed portion as part of the original land, the reclaimed land juts into the mangrove lagoon, a CRZ 1 area, and since the water body is governed by the daily tides on all three (and even the fourth) sides, the reclaimed land would be a NDZ in totality.
