Five years later Cavrem was back in the news. Last time around it was in the year 2011 when Nilesh Gaonkar was beaten up and this time around panch member of Village Panchayat of Cavrem Pirla Ravindra Velip was beaten up when in police custody. The agitation to block mining trucks from passing through Cavrem intensified and locals have been continuously coming out on the streets, while no deadlock is broken. There have been counter allegations by mining firms that the entire dharna and rasta roko is only to extort money and now the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has stated that mining traffic will not stop and has refused to listen to the residents of Cavrem. The answer here blowing in the winds is that Cavrem’s Velip community which is poor and downtrodden feel betrayed.
It’s Friday evening and the locals are elated that the Ambedkar Jayanthi and the next day Ram Navami holiday coupled with the weekend has kept mining firms shut and hence the mining traffic will not resume until Monday.
“There’s no mining traffic, we can bring out our cattle to graze, we can carry our heavy load of cashew baskets, we can dry our chillies along the asphalt and our children can breathe some fresh air. I wish this mining and ore transportation had never restarted,” asserted an old and frail Chandan Naik, a 66-year old who walks through four kms of Cavrem and has to go past a mining pit to reach his fields, where paddy is growing despite the water stream is now a trickle and choked with mining sediments.
“Magnum Mines, Dinar Tarcar, Fomento and the Agarwals have aggressively started pulling out their dumps and are also carrying out some fresh mining and the dust is back. The August 2012, ban on mining was such a relief but sadly, this activity is back. They’ll once again pull our water to wash the mining slack and the water table will drop in Cavrem and then our fields we die from the mining dust,” explains a dejected Yeswant Sawant, who is busy tending to his cattle, milking them, stacking coconuts and coordinating watering the vegetable garden.
Similarly, a pensive Shankar Velip, who spends from the paltry change in his pocket to buy a soda to beat the heat, explains to us. “Every day, one part of the flower ripens into cashews. We carry heavy loads on our head and bring from the forest to our homes to crush and make juice to ferment. We get Rs 500 for every galleon of urack which is sold at premium in towns. Our wives go and pluck vegetables and water our plantation. All this stalled because of mining trucks. The traffic on the roads makes our commute go for a toss and every delay means a rotten crop or a ripe cashew getting infested with worms. Our paddy field cover is reduced by 60% because of contamination from ore dust and mining sediments and you want us to compromise on mining?”
The anger is bitter among the people of Cavrem but they don’t see a way like the rest of Quepem, Sanguem, Sanvordem has sold themselves to pawn their gold and lands and buy trucks and earth moving equipment and join the mining business but they want no mining and no movement of mining trucks through their village and their adamant to stick to their ways of agriculture and dairy farming.
“If that’s what they want then why can’t they be respected? Why do mining companies and even the Goa government in the name of democracy try to bully these people and drag them off their roads and beat them and allow these mining trucks. I fought with the people of Cavrem in the year 2008. See how adamant they’re and even took compensation for destruction in the year 2012. They need to respected, Goa is too small and beautiful to ruin through mining,” explains Seby Rodrigues, mining activist, now based in Vanxim.
Similarly, a bruised and beaten Ravindra Velip who’s name features on Forest Right Committee claims and notices of Forest Right Committee meetings stuck at every temple and public space in Cavrem explains to us, that a small quantity of mining transport can be allowed but through a cooperative formed by the people of Cavrem and through the rules and regulations, timings, number of trucks plying. Cavrem locals want to think long term and save their ecology, mining is short term and we don’t want our health and environment ruined,” asserted an angry Ravindra, who coordinates the agitations, making the complaints, going to Panjim to meet the media and also fighting the mining firms.
The question that remains here is whether Ravindra will come clean on the money taken issue, whether Cavrem will continue to fight against the mining lobby or will they lose steam and the pressure that the local MLA brings on the people, whether there will be a truce or his conflict of interest as a mining contractor will take over the voices of the oppressed Velips.
“I tried to break ground, but I see corrects in both sides, in the mining lobby and in the Velips’ interest. One will not have their way since firms benefit and that the interest of Cavrem is it’s a democracy. The onus is on the CM to find an amicable solution and ensure the Velips and mining firm’s interest is really looked after. But for that I think the Velips of Cavrem need to open their minds and break the deadlock. The rasta roko is not a solution to anything. Allow trucks to transport,” stated former MLA and BJP leader Prakash Velip.
