AAP, Goa writes to Jawadekar with objections to the Draft EIA Notification, 2020: Demands scrapping of the proposed notification

"Amendments in the new draft are arbitrary and devoid of any scientific rationale":AAP

Prakash Kamat,
Panaji, June30- The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP)Goa, places on record its serious objections to the Draft EIA Not. 2020, in a letter written to Union Minister for Environment and Forest and Climate Change Prakash Jawadekar on Tuesday.
The letter says,"The earth is all we have in common". The Pandemic the world over has shown that there is a greater need now to protect our environment.
We have serious reservations about your intent in bringing this draft that is beyond the very scope of your ministry which is supposed to exist to safeguard the environment.
We raise our objections to the EIA Draft Notification, 2020 which is inherently opposed to the mandate of your Ministry. In fact to remind your Ministry again, on the 12th of May, 2020, 291 conservation scientists from across India, including members of statutory bodies urged you in larger public interest to “carry out the intended mandate of the Ministry, which is the protection of India’s forests, wildlife and natural heritage and not fast-track clearance of projects.”
Instead, the EIA Draft seeks to not only deviate from your Ministry’s mandate but subvert citizenship, and partnerships that strengthen our public health and environment. You will recall the principles of swaraj to know that public consultation is required for participatory decision making, but the EIA Draft Notification expands the list of projects (such as inland waterways, national highway widening, modernization of irrigation infrastructure etc) that do not require consultation. The Draft even allows for exceptions to be made where public consultations are required and cannot be held because of extraneous circumstances that may deem to arise owing to ‘local situations’. The undefined ‘local situation’ can only be misused and stifle the voices of concerned locals and citizens to avoid any public scrutiny. Public Hearings, by their very nature expose inconsistencies and to completely eliminate the possibility of such meetings is to not only dilute one of the strongest pillars of the EIA Process but of democracy. The Project Proponents are made less accountable to the public, as the Draft Notification restricts the nature of information that may be put out in public domain by excluding non-disclosable or legally privileged information from being part of the EIA summary.
In fact the EIA Draft seeks to validate prior wrongs of the Project Proponents. The very idea of this goes against the ethos of sound legal understanding, not to mention the numerous orders and observations of the National Green Tribunal and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. The only way in which the Draft Notification intends to tackle the issue of violators is by imposing meagre fines in exchange for environmental clearances.
While the Draft repeatedly emphasises the need of prior-environmental clearance, it then inexplicably regularises such violations ex-post facto. The past EIA Notifications do not normalise violations that have been committed prior to receiving environmental clearances. This draft not only goes against the Precautionary Principle and environmental jurisprudence but post facto clearances with meagre fines goes against several court judgments and federalism.
We request you to refer to the matter of S.P Muthuraman v. UOI and Anr [Original Application No. 37 of 2015] which states, “This is an entirely unworkable system and is even contrary to the federal structure of the Constitution. If this approach and procedure is allowed to be followed then any builder/ Project Proponent would complete his project causing irreversible damage to the environment and will then seek post-facto Environmental Clearance from the authorities making it a fait accompli situation.”
The amendments in the new draft are at best arbitrary and devoid of any scientific rationale. The exemption of constructions in 20,000 sq. m to 50,000 sq. m category had no clarity as to why they don’t require an EIA study. The EIA Draft has also increased the number of projects that do not require an EIA study. Further the ceiling for a Category B1 project has been increased from 2,000 ha to 10,000 ha of culturable command area. The Draft has also decreased the time frame for mandatory public consultations from 45 days to 40 days. Similarly, the time period allocated to the public in order to make a representation at the public hearing has also been cut short from 30 days to 20 days, with no rationale provided. Each of these exemptions add up to have a cumulative impact that is detrimental to the interests of the environment.
The EIA draft notification seeks to tailor the process for Project Proponent, disregarding all safeguards to the environment and for resident communities. It is pertinent to look at the observations made in the Vellore Citizens Case by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, where the court affirmed the need for a model of sustainable development that takes cognizance of the EIA process, “..sustainable development must be adopted by them as a balancing concept. If final clearance is granted after taking into account the environmental, social, health concerns, then it can be said that the government is using this process as a tool to ensure sustainability.”
The draft not only goes against federalism, sustainability principles and tries to stifle the voices of citizens, and in light of these serious concerns, our demand can only be that the draft EIA Draft 2020 should be fully scrapped.
Remember "The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth."
We hope you will heed to these objections and scrape the notification at the draft stage itself, says letter jointly signed by Elvis Gomes,AAP,Goa Convenor and Sidharth Karapurkar, AAP Goa Environment Cell
Convenor.(eom)             

VILLAGERS OF MELAULIM & OTHER VILLAGES OPPOSE THE PROPOSAL TO BUILD IIT GOA AT MELAULI VILLAGE IN SATTARI TALUKA

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 29- Fighting a mighty battle to save  cultivable land from villages, residents of Melaulim and neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka of North Goa have been running from pillar to post. They recently petitioned Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik with copies to various authorities including Central Government,with their plea against land being acquired for IIT,Goa.
The letter dated June 20,2010 is as follows:
This letter is to inform you that we, the affected villagers of Melauli and neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka completely oppose the illegal, ill-advised and catastrophic proposal to construct the IIT Goa complex in sy no 67/1, Melauli village, Sattari taluka. We also strongly condemn the underhand, unconstitutional, coercive and secretive steps being taken by the State Government to totally displace us by usurping our common agricultural and forest lands,without even informing or consulting us, in this cursed attempt to forcibly construct IIT Goa on our lands.
The following brief facts and arguments are placed before you, which overwhelmingly and irrefutably prove that this proposal is doomed from the beginning, and is anti-people and anti-development from all angles:

1. THREE WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES WITHIN 3 KM – UNIQUE IMPORTANCE OF THE ONLY FOREST PATCH IN MELAULIM VILLAGE AS A CRITICAL WILDLIFE CORRIDOR.
The land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village has unique and exceptional importance for the Wildlife of Goa in view of its strategic location. Melauli village borders the Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary on its South-West side, has the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary less than 700 m from its Eastern boundary, while Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary lies 2 km to the South-East of Melauli. This village is therefore of the highest importance to the Wildlife of Goa among the villages outside the Wildlife Sanctuaries of Goa. The land bearing sy no 67/1 has the best continuous stretch of forests and cultivated lands in Melauli village, which is teeming with wildlife of all kinds, to the extent that deer, bison, etc can be seen in this forest all throughout the day and night. The land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village is therefore a Critical Corridor that must be protected and conserved at any cost.

2. PROHIBITED ACTIVITY IN WG ESA
The village of Melauli is included in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Notification dated 27.2.2017 (commonly called Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas Notification, published on 28.2.2017 in the Official Gazette of India, Extraordinary, No 598, Part-II, Section 3, sub-section (ii)) as an Ecologically Sensitive Area of the Western Ghats, as recorded on page 129 of the Notification. Paragraph 3, (1), (d) of the Notification prohibits all new and expansion projects of building and construction with built up area of 20,000 square meters and above in the Ecologically Sensitive Areas of the Western Ghats. The IIT project is therefore prohibited in the village of Melauli.

3. UNIDENTIFIED AND UNPROTECTED FORESTS
Sy no 67/1, Melauli village has large stretches of forests of critical importance for both wildlife and our people. The forests on these lands are our community forests which sustain our lives by providing water recharge for our springs, timber and other forest produce, soil generation, soil fertility, environmental security, ecological balance and by reducing wildlife conflict. These community forests must be first identified and demarcated so that they are protected under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Godavarman Case and committed by Goa Government before the Courts. There are also large plantations of the scheduled tribes and indigenous communities within sy no 67/1, Melauli village, which are contiguous to the forests and provide continuity of habitat, food and shelter to the rich wildlife of the adjoining forest patches.
Unfortunately, the Thomas Committee and the other Committees appointed earlier to identify the unidentified forests in the State of Goa have not visited sy no 67/1 of Melauli village, Sattari taluka. Due to the haste with which the IIT project is being pushed, there is an imminent threat to these unidentified forests and other trees of sy no 67/1, Melauli village. It is therefore essential that the forests and other trees in sy no 67/1, Melauli village must be identified and demarcated immediately.
4. BIODIVERSITY OF MELAULI VILLAGE
The land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village is the most important reservoir of biodiversity in this village. Most of Melauli is heavily cultivated by the indigenous communities and the forests in sy no 67/1 of Melauli are the only place in the village which provide essential biodiversity services for the entire village. The land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village is extremely rich in biodiversity, with exceptionally rich populations of bison, leopards, pangolins, slender loris, 5 species of deer (sambhar, barking deer, spotted deer, mouse deer and four-horned antelope), civets, giant squirrel, flying squirrel, snakes including the King Cobra, all kinds of rare birds and other fauna of the Western Ghats, etc. The floral diversity of this land is also incomparable on account of the presence of both forests as well as exceptionally rich laterite plateaus within this land. It is therefore most essential that this land is conserved as it is, without changing the land use, in order to conserve the biodiversity of Goa and the Western Ghats.

5. LANDS BEARING SY NO 67/1, MELAULI ARE VILLAGE COMMONS, FULLY OCCUPIED & INHABITED BY SCHEDULED TRIBES AND OTHER RESIDENTS OF MELAULI
The lands surveyed under sy no 67/1, Melauli village are fully inhabited, possessed and used by the members of the scheduled tribes residing in the Murmune ward, other residents of Shel, Maingine, Dhada and Paikul wards of Melauli village and also by some of the residents of neighbouring villages. Over 2,500 villagers have direct rights over this land - some in terms of their cashew, mango, jackfruit and other plantations on the slopes; others by virtue of paddy, coconut, betel nut, vegetable, spices and other cultivation in the lower valleys (endowed with natural springs); and all the residents in terms of the forests and forest produce, grazing lands, unique medicinal plants found on the plateau, nallahs used for seasonal fishing, and, most importantly, (1) the critical, unalienable ground water recharge by the plateau giving rise to our fragile springs and water security, and (2) ecological services which are responsible for our environmental security.
These are the common lands of our village which are wrongly recorded in the survey records as occupied by the Government of Goa, since the entire land is inhabited and occupied by us and our ancestors since times immemorial. The entire land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village is called ‘Deula Moll’ by us, indicating that this land was traditionally occupied and cultivated as village commons under the auspices of the Temple located at the bottom of the slopes of sy no 67/1, Melauli village. From the earliest memories of our elders and their elders before them, most of the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village was cultivated for growing cereals and lentils such as nachno, udit, kudit, pakot, etc until early 1970s, when people shifted to cultivating cashew and other fruit trees on this land due to Government policies and market forces. Unfortunately, the survey carried out in early 1970s erroneously omitted to register our rights and possession over the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village and wrongly recorded Government of Goa, instead of our community, as the occupant. However, we have continued to remain in uninterrupted possession and have nurtured and tended to the entire land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village till date, just as our forefathers have done from times immemorial.

6. AN ATROCITY AGAINST THE SCHEDULED TRIBE COMMUNITY OF MURMUNE
The lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are in the possession of the scheduled tribe community of Murmune ward, along with the other residents of Melauli village. The scheduled tribe community of Murmune is completely dependent on this land for its livelihood and survival and is therefore totally opposed to being dispossessed of their lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village. The attempt to dispossess the tribal community of Murmune is an atrocity which cannot be allowed in the view of the Constitution of India, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and other laws in force.


7. FREE, PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT: STATUTORY, CONSTITUTIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MANDATES
We have enjoyed this land without any interruption for hundreds of years, and therefore the land cannot be alienated from us without taking our consent. There are numerous legal, constitutional and international mandates which require the Government to take our prior consent, such as:
a. The procedures laid down under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 must be followed by the Government, since the people of Melauli village have rights over all of the lands that are proposed to be usurped from our possession, notwithstanding whether the rights are recorded in the survey records and records of rights maintained by the Government.
b. The Constitution of India recognizes our Rights to Life, Livelihood, Equality, Justice and Environment as Fundamental Rights. Our rights to the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are directly related to our Fundamental Rights to Life, Livelihood, Equality, Justice and Environment and hence it is the Government’s Constitutional duty to consult us and obtain our consent before attempting to usurp our lands.
c. The Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 has the objective of greater participation of the people in the governance and decision-making for their villages, and which provides for informing the people, holding discussions and taking decisions through the Gram Sabha of the concerned Village Panchayat. Despite requests from the local community of our village through our Temple Committee, the Government has not only failed to inform us of the nature and implications of the proposed IIT project, or to consult us and obtain our consent, but has also kept us completely in the dark, to the extent that we have not even seen the plans showing which of our lands are proposed to be usurped.
d. After the 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India, it is now a Constitutional requirement to ensure people’s participation in taking such decisions.
e. India is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which mandates that the Governments of the World uphold the rights of Indigenous People, such as us, to self-governance and self-determination; to our lands, territories and resources; to our economic, political and cultural rights; etc. In particular, our Government is bound to obtain the Free, Prior, Informed Consent of indigenous communities prior to considering any proposal that displaces the indigenous people, and the Government of Goa is therefore obliged to obtain our Free, Prior, Informed Consent before deciding on locating the IIT project on our lands.


8. PEOPLE’S RIGHTS MUST BE RECOGNIZED FIRST
The Government records do not recognize the rights of the indigenous communities of Melauli over the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village and the resources provided by these lands. It is therefore incumbent upon the Government to initially consult the people and their local bodies to determine, recognize and document the rights of the local people over the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village, before taking any other steps with regards to the proposal to use these lands for the IIT Goa project.

9. WATER SECURITY AND WATER RESOURCES MUST BE STUDIED FIRST
The land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village includes plateau lands on top, steeply sloping forested/ cultivated lands along the slopes of the plateau and valleys below. The plateau and the slopes are the main aquifer for Melauli village and there are more than 8 major perennial springs and numerous ponds within sy no 67/1, Melauli village that sustain the lives of the local people, vegetation and Wildlife. Government of Goa must first carry out scientific studies of the water resources provided by the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village, the dependence of the local communities and the rich Wildlife of the forests and plateau within this land on these water resources, and the water security of Melauli village, Sattari taluka and State of Goa, before considering the proposal of locating IIT Goa on this land.
10. POST COVID-19, DO WE NEED MORE IITs IN THIS CLIMATE CRISIS?
The post Covid-19 World needs to be different, if man has to survive the daunting challenges looming ahead. The past economic policies have been blindly pushing man and the planet towards disaster, and even annihilation, at the hands of climate change, resources depletion, deadly health implications such as Covid-19, and other consequences. India is under the greatest threat due to our fragile monsoon systems, groundwater depletion, melting glaciers, collapsing food security, large population and vulnerable coasts. The State of Goa, which is on the frontline of the climate emergency due to its coastal location, has crossed its carrying capacity long back and is already reeling under severe environmental stress due to massive destruction due to mining, industries, real estate speculation and big hotels and casino based tourism.
All the scientists of the World and distinguished thinkers and persons, including the UN Secretary-General, are pleading with the Governments to change the policies for the post Covid-19 world towards sustainable and environment friendly economic policies. In this scenario, the decision of the Indian Government to build more IITs (we have already increased the number of IITs from 5 in the past to 23) is highly questionable. More engineers will require us to create more unsustainable economic activities and jobs, accelerating our own demise. The proposed IIT Goa project at Melauli village is exactly what we are required to stop, if mankind, especially the population of Goa, has to survive in the post Covid-19 era.
11. IIT FIASCO
The proposal to construct yet another IIT in our country needs to be revisited in view of the information now available. There were only 5 IITs in the country for many decades, which served the country well. Suddenly, in the past few years, the number of IITs has been increased to 23, due to the blind policy to build more IITs across the country. However, this multifold increase in the number of IITs has had a catastrophic impact on the student communities, the standard of education in these institutes and their reputation. It is well documented that most of the IITs are now highly understaffed and without the infrastructure necessary to impart the high standard of education they were meant for. The demand from the students has accordingly shrunk drastically, with many new IITs struggling to find students of the high caliber they are looking for. The need of the hour is to first provide the existing IITs with the staff and infrastructure they need, before constructing any new IIT campuses, which will require at least another ten years. Until such time, all new IIT campuses, such as the one at Goa, must be shelved.

12. EVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PROPOSED IIT ON THE REGION
The proposed IIT project will have disastrous impacts on the economies, societies and environment of not just Melauli village, but the entire region, for the following reasons:
a. Firstly, the local communities of Melauli village are totally dependent on the economic and environmental resources provided by the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village. The lives and livelihoods of the 2,500 local people directly dependent on the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are under grave threat due to the direct impact of losing their agricultural, grazing and forest lands as well as local water resources to the IIT project. The IIT project will directly displace these 2,500 people belonging to the indigenous communities.
b. Secondly, the water security of this region, which is highly sensitive and fragile from the inception, is already highly threatened due to diversion of Madei river by Karnataka, leaving the Ragada river as the main tributary of the Mandovi river on which lakhs of Goans depend. The IIT project will not only destroy the recharge area of the local water resources, on which it is proposed to be constructed, but will also be a big consumer of the scarce water resources of the Ragada River, thus denying tens of thousands of local farmers and fishers of the region the precious and limited water resources on which their lives and livelihoods depend.
c. The IIT project is proposed to be located at Melauli village only to facilitate the displacement of tens of thousands of oppressed persons from the villages of Guleli, Dhamshem and other neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka by speculative real estate. The indigenous local communities of Sattari taluka are the most oppressed in the State of Goa due to the ruthless ruling class of this taluka. Most of the people of the villages surrounding Melauli don’t have any documentation of their rights over the lands on which they live and cultivate. Most of the lands in this region are wrongly recorded in Government records as occupied by the ruling class families or by the Government of Goa, though the indigenous communities have lived on these lands, cultivated them and occupied them continuously and without any interruption for thousands of years. This historical injustice must be first resolved by ensuring that all the rights of the indigenous communities are recorded in the Government records, before any changes in land use are allowed or proposed. The IIT project will create a speculative demand for land from the thousands of rich and privileged people from across India who will be using or visiting these facilities, allowing the local feudal landlords to sell the lands wrongly recorded in their names to these unsuspecting investors, leading to mass displacement of the indigenous communities residing/cultivating on these lands and who are the real occupants and owners of these lands.
d. The food security of Goa is extremely poor, as demonstrated during the recent Covid-19 lockdown. Rich agricultural lands such as sy no 67/1, Melauli village are the only hope for the improvement of the food security of the State. The IIT project will have a massive negative impact on the already beleaguered food security of Goa, which does not augur well for the State and its residents in the face of the food crisis expected due to the impending climate emergency.
e. The lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are home to exceptionally rich wildlife and is additionally the critical wildlife corridor connecting the three wildlife sanctuaries located around this land. The proposed IIT will not only decimate healthy populations of the Schedule-I animals like pangolin, bison, leopard, slender loris, etc that live here, but will also ensure that the populations of 5 species of deer and various other types of fauna residing here perish as well. The IIT project will also cause devastating man-wildlife conflict in all the neighbouring lands, which are presently under heavy cultivation. Further, the loss of this critical wildlife corridor will have a massive negative impact on the health of the wildlife populations of all the three wildlife Sanctuaries that are dependent on this Corridor for their survival.
f. No amount of money can buy the lives of people and their community. There is no price that one can put on a community. The community is not a commodity that can be bought and sold. This community is a living body with soul and history. To displace and uproot them from their home and community is the gravest crime against humanity. Where will these people go? Do we Indians want to murder our own people, like the colonial powers did over a century ago?

In view of the above self-explanatory facts and arguments, we demand that the proposal to locate the IIT Goa campus in sy no 67/1, Melauli village must be dropped immediately, under intimation to us, the letter state.(eom)

Prakash Kamat
Panaji-Date: 5th June, 2020

From
Residents of Melauli and neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka, Goa,
c/o  ,
Shubham Shivolkar
, Melauli, Sattari taluka, Goa – 403506
Tel: 8208666011

To
1. His Excellency, The Governor of Goa,
Raj Bhavan, Dona Paula, Panaji, Goa - 403004
Email - governor.goa@gov.in

2. The Hon’ble Union Minister for Human Resources Development,
Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi – 110001
Email – minister.hrd@gov.in

3. Shri Pramod Sawant, The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa,
Ministers’ Block, Secretariat, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403521
Email - cm.goa@nic.in

4. Shri Vishwajit Rane, The Hon’ble MLA of Valpoi Constituency,
Office of the Minister for Health, Craftsmen Training & Women & Child Development,
206, Ministers’ Block, Secretariat, Alto- Porvorim, Bardez, Goa 403521
Email – mla.valpoi.gvs@gov.in, healthminstergoa@gmail.com

5. The Chief Secretary of Goa,
The Secretariat, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403521
Email - cs-goa@nic.in

6. The Secretary (Revenue),
The Secretariat, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403521
Email - -goa@nic.in

7. The Collector, North Goa District,
The North Goa Collectorate Building, Panaji, Goa- 403001
Email – coln.goa@nic.in

8. The Director, Directorate of Technical Education,
DTE Building, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403521
Email - dir-dte.goa@nic.in


9. The Dy Conservator of Forests, North Goa Division,
The Forest Department, Ponda, Goa - 403401
Email – dcfnorth-forest.goa@nic.in

10. The Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department,
Sinchai Bhavan, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa - 403521
Email – ce-wrd.goa@nic.in

11. The Sarpach/Secretary,
Village Panchayat of Guleli, Guleli, Sattari, Goa - 403506
Email – vpguleli@gmail.com

SUB: REQUEST TO DROP THE ILL-ADVISED PROPOSAL TO BUILD IIT GOA AT MELAULI VILLAGE IN SATTARI TALUKA

Dear Sir/Madam,

This letter is to inform you that we, the affected villagers of Melauli and neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka completely oppose the illegal, ill-advised and catastrophic proposal to construct the IIT Goa complex in sy no 67/1, Melauli village, Sattari taluka. We also strongly condemn the underhand, unconstitutional, coercive and secretive steps being taken by the Government to totally displace us by usurping our common lands, without even informing or consulting us, in this cursed attempt to forcibly construct IIT Goa on our lands. The following brief facts and arguments are placed before you, which overwhelmingly and irrefutably prove that this proposal is doomed from the beginning, and is anti-people and anti-development from all angles:
1. THREE WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES WITHIN 3 KM – UNIQUE IMPORTANCE OF THE ONLY FOREST PATCH IN MELAULIM VILLAGE AS A CRITICAL WILDLIFE CORRIDOR
The land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village has unique and exceptional importance for the Wildlife of Goa in view of its strategic location. Melauli village borders the Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary on its South-West side, has the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary less than 700 m from its Eastern boundary, while Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary lies 2 km to the South-East of Melauli. This village is therefore of the highest importance to the Wildlife of Goa among the villages outside the Wildlife Sanctuaries of Goa. The land bearing sy no 67/1 has the best continuous stretch of forests and cultivated lands in Melauli village, which is teeming with wildlife of all kinds, to the extent that deer, bison, etc can be seen in this forest all throughout the day and night. The land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village is therefore a Critical Corridor that must be protected and conserved at any cost.
2. PROHIBITED ACTIVITY IN WG ESA
The village of Melauli is included in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Notification dated 27.2.2017 (commonly called Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas Notification, published on 28.2.2017 in the Official Gazette of India, Extraordinary, No 598, Part-II, Section 3, sub-section (ii)) as an Ecologically Sensitive Area of the Western Ghats, as recorded on page 129 of the Notification. Paragraph 3, (1), (d) of the Notification prohibits all new and expansion projects of building and construction with built up area of 20,000 square meters and above in the Ecologically Sensitive Areas of the Western Ghats. The IIT project is therefore prohibited in the village of Melauli.
3. UNIDENTIFIED AND UNPROTECTED FORESTS
Sy no 67/1, Melauli village has large stretches of forests of critical importance for both wildlife and our people. The forests on these lands are our community forests which sustain our lives by providing water recharge for our springs, timber and other forest produce, soil generation, soil fertility, environmental security, ecological balance and by reducing wildlife conflict. These community forests must be first identified and demarcated so that they are protected under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Godavarman Case and committed by Goa Government before the Courts. There are also large plantations of the indigenous communities within sy no 67/1, Melauli village, which are contiguous to the forests and provide continuity of habitat, food and shelter to the rich wildlife of the adjoining forest patches.
Unfortunately, the Thomas Committee and the other Committees appointed earlier to identify the unidentified forests in the State of Goa have not visited sy no 67/1 of Melauli village, Sattari taluka. Due to the haste with which the IIT project is being pushed, there is an imminent threat to these unidentified forests and other trees of sy no 67/1, Melauli village. It is therefore essential that the forests and other trees in sy no 67/1, Melauli village must be identified and demarcated immediately.
4. BIODIVERSITY OF MELAULI VILLAGE
The land bearing sy no 67/1 of Melauli village is the most important reservoir of biodiversity in this village. Most of Melauli is heavily cultivated by the indigenous communities and the forests in sy no 67/1 of Melauli are the only place in the village which provide essential biodiversity services for the entire village. The land bearing sy no 76/1 of Melauli village is extremely rich in biodiversity, with exceptionally rich populations of bison, leopards, pangolins, slender loris, 5 species of deer (sambhar, barking deer, spotted deer, mouse deer and four-horned antelope), civets, giant squirrel, flying squirrel, snakes including the King Cobra, all kinds of rare birds and other fauna of the Western Ghats, etc. The floral diversity of this land is also incomparable on account of the presence of both forests as well as exceptionally rich laterite plateaus within this land. It is therefore most essential that this land is conserved as it is, without changing the land use, in order to conserve the biodiversity of Goa and the Western Ghats.


5. LANDS BEARING SY NO 67/1, MELAULI ARE COMMONS, FULLY OCCUPIED & INHABITED BY VILLAGERS OF MELAULI
The lands surveyed under sy no 67/1, Melauli village are fully inhabited, possessed and used by the villagers residing in the Murmune, Shel, Maingine, Dhada and other wards of Melauli village and also by some of the residents of neighbouring villages. Over 2,500 villagers have direct rights over this land - some in terms of their cashew, mango, jackfruit and other plantations on the slopes; others by virtue of paddy, coconut, betel nut, vegetable, spices and other cultivation in the lower valleys (endowed with natural springs); and all the residents in terms of the forests and forest produce, grazing lands, unique medicinal plants found on the plateau, nallahs used for seasonal fishing, and, most importantly, (1) the critical, unalienable ground water recharge by the plateau giving rise to our fragile springs and water security, and (2) ecological services which are responsible for our environmental security.
These are the common lands of our village which are wrongly recorded in the survey records as occupied by the Government of Goa, since the entire land is inhabited and occupied by us and our ancestors since times immemorial. The entire land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village is called ‘Deula Moll’ by us, indicating that this land was traditionally occupied and cultivated as village commons under the auspices of the Temple located at the bottom of the slopes of sy no 67/1, Melauli village. From the earliest memories of our elders and their elders before them, most of the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village was cultivated for growing cereals and lentils such as nachno, udit, kudit, pakot, etc until early 1970s, when people shifted to cultivating cashew and other fruit trees on this land due to Government policies and market forces. Unfortunately, the survey carried out in early 1970s erroneously omitted to register our rights and possession over the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village and wrongly recorded Government of Goa, instead of our community, as the occupant. However, we have continued to remain in uninterrupted possession and have nurtured and tended to the entire land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village till date, just as our forefathers have done from times immemorial.
6. FREE, PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT: STATUTORY, CONSTITUTIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MANDATES
We have enjoyed this land without any interruption for hundreds of years, and therefore the land cannot be alienated from us without taking our consent. There are numerous legal, constitutional and international mandates which require the Government to take our prior consent, such as:
a. The procedures laid down under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 must be followed by the Government, since the people of Melauli village have rights over all of the lands that are proposed to be usurped from our possession, notwithstanding whether the rights are recorded in the survey records and records of rights maintained by the Government.
b. The Constitution of India recognizes our Rights to Life, Livelihood, Equality, Justice and Environment as Fundamental Rights. Our rights to the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are directly related to our Fundamental Rights to Life, Livelihood, Equality, Justice and Environment and hence it is the Government’s Constitutional duty to consult us and obtain our consent before attempting to usurp our lands.
c. The Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 has the objective of greater participation of the people in the governance and decision-making for their villages, and which provides for informing the people, holding discussions and taking decisions through the Gram Sabha of the concerned Village Panchayat. Despite requests from the local community of our village through our Temple Committee, the Government has not only failed to inform us of the nature and implications of the proposed IIT project, or to consult us and obtain our consent, but has also kept us completely in the dark, to the extent that we have not even seen the plans showing which of our lands are proposed to be usurped.
d. After the 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India, it is now a Constitutional requirement to ensure people’s participation in taking such decisions.
e. India is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which mandates that the Governments of the World uphold the rights of Indigenous People, such as us, to self-governance and self-determination; to our lands, territories and resources; to our economic, political and cultural rights; etc. In particular, our Government is bound to obtain the Free, Prior, Informed Consent of indigenous communities prior to considering any proposal that displaces the indigenous people, and the Government of Goa is therefore obliged to obtain our Free, Prior, Informed Consent before deciding on locating the IIT project on our lands.






7. PEOPLE’S RIGHTS MUST BE RECOGNIZED FIRST
The Government records do not recognize the rights of the indigenous communities of Melauli over the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village and the resources provided by these lands. It is therefore incumbent upon the Government to initially consult the people and their local bodies to determine, recognize and document the rights of the local people over the land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village, before taking any other steps with regards to the proposal to use these lands for the IIT Goa project.
8. WATER SECURITY AND WATER RESOURCES MUST BE STUDIED FIRST
The land bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village includes plateau lands on top, steeply sloping forested/ cultivated lands along the slopes of the plateau and valleys below. The plateau and the slopes are the main aquifer for Melauli village and there are more than 8 major perennial springs and numerous ponds within sy no 67/1, Melauli village that sustain the lives of the local people, vegetation and Wildlife. Government of Goa must first carry out scientific studies of the water resources provided by the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village, the dependence of the local communities and the rich Wildlife of the forests and plateau within this land on these water resources, and the water security of Melauli village, Sattari taluka and State of Goa, before considering the proposal of locating IIT Goa on this land.
9. POST COVID-19, DO WE NEED MORE IITs IN THIS CLIMATE CRISIS?
The post Covid-19 World needs to be different, if man has to survive the daunting challenges looming ahead. The past economic policies have been blindly pushing man and the planet towards disaster, and even annihilation, at the hands of climate change, resources depletion, deadly health implications such as Covid-19, and other consequences. India is under the greatest threat due to our fragile monsoon systems, groundwater depletion, melting glaciers, collapsing food security, large population and vulnerable coasts. The State of Goa, which is on the frontline of the climate emergency due to its coastal location, has crossed its carrying capacity long back and is already reeling under severe environmental stress due to massive destruction due to mining, industries, real estate speculation and big hotels and casino based tourism.
All the scientists of the World and distinguished thinkers and persons, including the UN Secretary-General, are pleading with the Governments to change the policies for the post Covid-19 world towards sustainable and environment friendly economic policies. In this scenario, the decision of the Indian Government to build more IITs (we have already increased the number of IITs from 5 in the past to 23) is highly questionable. More engineers will require us to create more unsustainable economic activities and jobs, accelerating our own demise. The proposed IIT Goa project at Melauli village is exactly what we are required to stop, if mankind, especially the population of Goa, has to survive in the post Covid-19 era.
10. IIT FIASCO
The proposal to construct yet another IIT in our country needs to be revisited in view of the information now available. There were only 5 IITs in the country for many decades, which served the country well. Suddenly, in the past few years, the number of IITs has been increased to 23, due to the blind policy to build more IITs across the country. However, this multifold increase in the number of IITs has had a catastrophic impact on the student communities, the standard of education in these institutes and their reputation. It is well documented that most of the IITs are now highly understaffed and without the infrastructure necessary to impart the high standard of education they were meant for. The demand from the students has accordingly shrunk drastically, with many new IITs struggling to find students of the high caliber they are looking for. The need of the hour is to first provide the existing IITs with the staff and infrastructure they need, before constructing any new IIT campuses, which will require at least another ten years. Until such time, all new IIT campuses, such as the one at Goa, must be shelved.

11. EVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PROPOSED IIT ON THE REGION
The proposed IIT project will have disastrous impacts on the economies, societies and environment of not just Melauli village, but the entire region, for the following reasons:
a. Firstly, the local communities of Melauli village are totally dependent on the economic and environmental resources provided by the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village. The lives and livelihoods of the 2,500 local people directly dependent on the lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are under grave threat due to the direct impact of losing their agricultural, grazing and forest lands as well as local water resources to the IIT project. The IIT project will directly displace these 2,500 people belonging to the indigenous communities.
b. Secondly, the water security of this region, which is highly sensitive and fragile from the inception, is already highly threatened due to diversion of Madei river by Karnataka, leaving the Ragada river as the main tributary of the Mandovi river on which lakhs of Goans depend. The IIT project will not only destroy the recharge area of the local water resources, on which it is proposed to be constructed, but will also be a big consumer of the scarce water resources of the Ragada River, thus denying tens of thousands of local farmers and fishers of the region the precious and limited water resources on which their lives and livelihoods depend.
c. The IIT project is proposed to be located at Melauli village only to facilitate the displacement of tens of thousands of oppressed persons from the villages of Guleli, Dhamshem and other neighbouring villages of Sattari taluka by speculative real estate. The indigenous local communities of Sattari taluka are the most oppressed in the State of Goa due to the ruthless ruling class of this taluka. Most of the people of the villages surrounding Melauli don’t have any documentation of their rights over the lands on which they live and cultivate. Most of the lands in this region are wrongly recorded in Government records as occupied by the ruling class families or by the Government of Goa, though the indigenous communities have lived on these lands, cultivated them and occupied them continuously and without any interruption for thousands of years. This historical injustice must be first resolved by ensuring that all the rights of the indigenous communities are recorded in the Government records, before any changes in land use are allowed or proposed. The IIT project will create a speculative demand for land from the thousands of rich and privileged people from across India who will be using or visiting these facilities, allowing the local feudal landlords to sell the lands wrongly recorded in their names to these unsuspecting investors, leading to mass displacement of the indigenous communities residing/cultivating on these lands and who are the real occupants and owners of these lands.
d. The food security of Goa is extremely poor, as demonstrated during the recent Covid-19 lockdown. Rich agricultural lands such as sy no 67/1, Melauli village are the only hope for the improvement of the food security of the State. The IIT project will have a massive negative impact on the already beleaguered food security of Goa, which does not augur well for the State and its residents in the face of the food crisis expected due to the impending climate emergency.
e. The lands bearing sy no 67/1, Melauli village are home to exceptionally rich wildlife and is additionally the critical wildlife corridor connecting the three wildlife sanctuaries located around this land. The proposed IIT will not only decimate healthy populations of the Schedule-I animals like pangolin, bison, leopard, slender loris, etc that live here, but will also ensure that the populations of 5 species of deer and various other types of fauna residing here perish as well. The IIT project will also cause devastating man-wildlife conflict in all the neighbouring lands, which are presently under heavy cultivation. Further, the loss of this critical wildlife corridor will have a massive negative impact on the health of the wildlife populations of all the three wildlife Sanctuaries that are dependent on this Corridor for their survival.
f. No amount of money can buy the lives of people and their community. There is no price that you can put on a community. The community is not a commodity that can be bought and sold. This community is a living body with soul and history. To displace and uproot them from their home and community is the gravest crime against humanity. Where will these people go? Do we Indians want to murder our own people, like the colonial powers did over a century ago?

In view of the above self-explanatory facts and arguments, we demand that the proposal to locate the IIT Goa campus in sy no 67/1, Melauli village must be shelved immediately, under intimation to us. You are also welcome to ask us for any further information or clarification, if required.

Thanking you,


Yours sincerely,

Lockdown : St Mathias community project 2020 and it's vision ‘Clean and Green village’ at Divar island of North Goa

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 29- 104... Lockdown and in self isolation in St Mathias Divar,Goa, writes @Goenchofestakar Marius Fernandes in his daily lockdown diary.

St Mathias community project 2020 and it's vision ‘Clean and Green village’ supported by the St Mathias panchayat initiative was formally launched on Sunday, June 28,2020  in Malar, Divar island. It's a partnership that brought together the St Mathias panchayat, a startup Green Polymer, households and citizens/volunteers of the village.
The villagers expressed pleasure to have the opportunity to make  Malar village as one of the cleanest in India.
The sarpanch  Mohan Volvoikar along his panch members said, "We were fortunate to have a first kind of its type mission, but it should also be the responsibility of everyone to strive towards making our village clean and green and one of the healthiest environment."
He was happy that the youth have come forward and added that it's truly a community effort.
Appealing to the people of St Mathias village to change their behaviour in keeping their surroundings clean he further said, “Every individual has an important role to play to bring change in the mindset of the people, and change must begin from each home.”
He also praised the efforts of Sohail Pereira Dave Paiva Kellen Roman of
Green polymer and highlighted the concept of ‘Clean and Green Village’ and imbibed a sense of responsibility amongst the villagers on maintaining eco-friendly and hazard-free environment.
He assured that the St Mathias village will now become a model of cleanliness in the state through this noble initiative of partnership of citizens and elected representatives.
"This community drive will be held on every last Sunday of the month, Mr. Marius Fernandes told this blogger.(eom)

Covid-19’s Serious Risks for Economic Rights: HRW's Questions, Answers, Recommendations for Government Action

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 29-The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have long lasting economic and social impacts and disproportionally harm those who were already economically or socially vulnerable before the crisis, Human Rights Watch said in a question-and-answer document released on Monday. 
Human rights should be at the center of governments’ short, medium, and long-term economic responses to the crisis to prevent further deepening profound inequalities.
The document, “Protecting Economic and Social Rights During and Post-Covid-19: Questions and Answers on Economic and Social Assistance”, says that under international law, governments are required to uphold the right to an adequate standard of living, among other human rights standards, and that this requirement should be at the center of the economic response to Covid-19. 
Human Rights Watch(HRW) examined the ways that governments have reacted to the pandemic. Based on that analysis, the document provides recommendations and guidelines for governments and financial institutions to stop, prevent, and mitigate the human rights impacts and risks posed by the economic implications of the pandemic and containment measures.
“Governments have taken important steps to mitigate the economic fallout, but many have not sufficiently or adequately protected those who are most at risk,” said Lena Simet, senior poverty and inequality researcher at HRW. 
"Despite massive relief programs, many people experience poverty or remain unable to afford necessities, and some groups have been excluded from support altogether.
Assistance should cover especially those placed at greatest economic and social risk due to Covid-19", HRW said. 
But some countries have adopted policies that provide assistance exclusively to certain groups, tying aid to specific geographic areas, an individual’s immigration status, or participation in the formal economy. Such practices have left many people, a large share them women, with limited access to health services and social protection, contributing to their risk of falling into poverty. 
Human Rights Watch puts forward recommendations for economic and social assistance in the short-, medium-, and long-term. In the short-term, support can take the form of expanding existing or introducing new social protection programs, deferral of rental and mortgage payments, moratoriums on evictions due to arrears, rental stabilization, or reduction measures, and suspending utility costs and cut-offs for non-payment and debt collection. Governments should also take steps to make testing and treatment or vaccines developed for Covid-19 affordable and accessible to everyone.
In the medium- to longer-term, governments should spend more on protecting economic and social rights, instead of engaging in abusive austerity. This could take the form of making some of the immediate support programs permanent and creating stronger social protection systems that reach universal coverage.
While financial support to the private sector is critical to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic, Human Rights Watch urges including provisions for oversight to ensure that funds are not misspent. Emergency funding is especially vulnerable to corruption and misuse because of the urgency and scale of government spending. The underlying emergency can overwhelm or hinder oversight systems, allowing powerful actors to take advantage of the crisis for their benefit instead of supporting workers.
Similarly, funding and supportf from international financial institutions like the World Bank Group and the IMF – critical for protecting livelihoods and economies in countries with few resources – should ensure transparency and accountability in their emergency response. Financial support is going to countries with poor human rights records, corporations, and banks, raising concerns that the financial assistance provided will not reach those most in need.
Addressing the vast economic inequalities that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed and exacerbated requires longer-term investments in public health care, social protection, and infrastructure, HRW said. Such recovery plans should take into account the ways in which some groups have suffered more harm than others during the pandemic, prioritizing economic recovery and correcting inequities that led to disparities in the first place. 
"There is a huge risk that millions of people will fall into poverty, and face hunger and permanent job loss,” Simet said. “Unless governments provide effective long-term economic and social assistance, the pandemic threatens to increase and entrench economic inequality even further.”(eom)

Oppose new EIA notification sought to be imposed by MoEF&CC,pleads Goa Foundation

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 27-The Goa Foundation,Goa-based environmental NGO  requests a favour. Please read this post in its entirely!

The Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF&CC) is attempting to force a new Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA)notification on the country. You need to get involved.

The process of granting an “environment clearance” appears innocent: before the project can start construction, the Ministry of Environment is required to be aware of negative impacts the new proposed activity may cause to nature and people. Hence all new projects – and existing projects that want to expand – have to submit to the EIA process.

The Ministry approved the first EIA notification in January 1994. It was then a mere 11 pages, but tight and fit as a fiddle, crystal clear to all.

In 2006, the Ministry replaced the 1994 notification with a new notification of 55 pages (EIA 2006). The EC process now became a murky game of words and pages. A gaggle of EIA consultants churned out spiral bound cut and paste jobs for which they were paid handsome fees. Most EIAs contained lies. All EIAs, paid for in cash, naturally supported the project, majority claiming the new project would do “marginal” damage to the environment. Any damage could be mitigated, etc., and so on. Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC), manned by fuddy duddies, willingly swallowed all the data in the EIA reports as gospel truth. As a result, each and every project was simply approved, and granted an “environment clearance”.

With the certificate in hand, two things became possible for the project proponent:
a) No further need of anxiety whether one followed the conditions imposed in the EC or not, since there was no post-EC monitoring. The EC became a certificate for legitimized pollution.
b) The EC became a tool to legitimize takeover of land from village communities, farmers, tribals and others. For the EACs the issue of “environment clearance” was reduced to pollution load. For people in whose locality the project was approved, what was “cleared” was the right of the developer to takeover their lands, the natural environment in which they lived free, without encumbrances and fences, and their earlier unchallenged opportunities for livelihood.

Today, true to its colours, the Ministry of Environment has declared its intention to replace the EIA 2006 notification with the EIA 2020 notification, by which it wishes to exclude large number of industries from public consultation, remove the ban on locating these projects close to Wildlife Sanctuaries and national parks, dilute environmental standards, and generally expand the slow poisoning of the population. The objective: improve “ease of doing business” for fat cat corporates whose rampant farting has already destabilized climate gases, and forced the planet to its knees.

Those of you who have the time and the inclination to resist and protest this nonsense, can do one of three things before 30 June, 2020, the cut off date:

a) Check out the response letter sent by the Goa Foundation to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (http://goafoundation.org/goa-foundation-objects-to-eia-2020/) challenging the idea of EIA 2020, and asking for the draft (it will be finalized after receipt and study of all objections) to be permanently shelved. You can construct your own letter out of that, since the Goa Foundation does not believe in imposing copyright on its work.

b) If you do not have the time or inclination to do that, but you still want to do something about the matter, simply write to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (email id: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), endorsing the letter of the Goa Foundation dated 26.6.2020. Make sure to insist explicitly that you too feel that the draft EIA 2020 should be permanently shelved on the grounds given in the letter.

c) You can also visit the website (https://unitedconservationmovement.org/) of the United Conservation Movement (located in Bengaluru) which provides you comprehensive information on these issues. That site also offers assistance for ready and easy lodging of letters challenging the draft EIA 2020 and for demanding the strengthening of the existing EIA 2006 instead.

Every email the Ministry of Environment receives (eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), whether long or short, opposing EIA 2020, will hit target. If the Ministry gets an overwhelmingly negative dose from you, us and lots of others, it will have to put the draft notification into the nearest waste basket. Also get your friends and colleagues to join this effort, pleads Dr. Claude Alvares, Director ,The Goa Foundation &Team.(eom)

Goa tourism industry tells MOE&F&CC to revoke forest clearances given to Mollem National Park as they are in direct opposition to the State’s vision plan

Prakash Kamat
Panaji,June 25-The Goa tourism industry,in a letter addressed to Union minister for Environment and Forest ad Climate Change Prakash Jawadekar says that forest clearances given to Mollem National Park should be revoked and are in direct opposition to the State’s vision plan.
On the 25th of June, 2020 more than 150 members of Goa’s tourism industry signed a letter addressed to Mr. Javadekar and Prahlad Singh Patel,Minister of State as Ministry of Tourism and Minister of Culture, officials from the Goa State Government and the National Board for Wildlife.
The signatories included stakeholders across the tourism industry– from hotel and restaurant owners to tour operators, guides and outdoor educators.
Signatories represented a diversity of tourism owners from North and South Goa as well as coastal and hinterland areas, including Mollem area, where the proposed projects are to take place in Goa’s largest protected area.
A number of signatories, who were based outside the State and bring large groups from across the country for technology, health, wellness, education and nature adventures were also concerned.
The appeal rebuked the boards that have sanctioned the clearing of forestland i Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park, which are important destinations for environmental tourism operators and visitors in Goa.
“A fractured future lies ahead for the tourism industry if the value of biodiversity and ecological conservation is overlooked in making such industrial concessions,” said Pooja Rani, Co-Founder of Khoj-aao! Adventures, a member of the Responsible Tourism Collective and one of the signatories.
“We have to protect, conserve and promote Goa’s USP for everyone,” she added.
Another signatory, Farrokh Maneckshaw, a member of the Responsible Tourism Collective, who runs and built Laguna Anjuna Resort, an eco-resort based in the heart of North Goa in the 1990’s, echoed a similar point.
“If we don’t nurture our unique natural beauty, biodiversity and way of life,Goa will be irreversibly destroyed. Our tourism livelihood comes year after year because of this natural beauty. We cannot take this for granted and copy other destinations, which construct and build because they are not endowed with the same natural beauty. We should not kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said.
The letter stated that deforestation from these projects will adversely affect the future development of hinterland tourism, “which directly opposes the state’s 25-year vision (approved in 2019) to revamp the economy.”
The current tourism initiatives in the area will be detrimentally affected, as well.
Goa has been attracting tourists for decades with the combination of natural and cultural bounty. However, the state’s tourism industry has seen a 30% decline in recent years.
With shifting trends and increasingly unpredictable numbers, operators
across the board have stated the need to participate in sustainable environmental tourism approaches. The COVID-19 crisis has been a blatant hindrance to tourism in the foreseeable future and this has intensified the existing pressure on the industry.
While there is a call to create a state policy regarding the growth and standards of the tourism industry, the letter asserts, that sustainability principles that contribute to economic growth and increasing livelihood created by the State.
“In terms of hinterland tourism, I see huge potential for development and employment generation. Dudhsagar Waterfall has a huge captive audience and mass market, which does not even require advertising.
Collem village could position itself as the 'Gateway to Dudhsagar'.
Small improvements could go a long way in improving the guest experience and ensure year-round tourism. To ensure low impact and maximum value, this tourism segment should be promoted in the form of
small scale, locally owned initiatives specifically for agriculture and nature tourism,” added Ashok Malkarnekar, Partner at Dudhsagar Plantation.
The letter went on to state that hinterland tourism would not only increase State revenue and reverse declining employment rates, but also has an opportunity to emerge as a global leader, citing examples of how nature-based tourism in places like southern Africa and Costa Rica have proved to be successful. The letter states, “The benefits from developing sustainable hinterland tourism are for everyone— revenue for the State, an increase in youth and local community employment and a rich cultural exchange promoting Goan traditional and local culture.”
They called for the government to bring together local and experienced stakeholders to provide strategies that can be implemented with a keen interest to develop sustainable practices across the tourism industry.
At this moment, the State has the opportunity to preserve the surrounding environment and delicate ecosystems in order to salvage local resources and strengthen a suffering industry, while it still can.
They implored the government to take these concerns and act on these opportunities seriously to protect the State of Goa.(eom)

A Panaji School approaches Cyber Cell of Police as some students misuse on-line classes: Says,Teachers demoralised &disheartened

Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 24-A city-based reputed school has suspended on-line classes for a day and lodged a complaint with Cyber Cell of Goa police on Wednesday following misuse of a social media platform by some students to make fun by clicking teachers faces during the on-line classes and manipulating power point presentations and passing disrespectful comments on a social media(SM) platform.
In a message conveyed to students and parents, the school management, inter alia, said that due to the Covid 19 pandemic, for safety of students they have not  allowed them within the portals of the school. As education cannot take a backseat, even during this crises, the management arranged online teaching sessions for all classes at their own cost. This method of teaching is new for all teachers and the preparations of the lessons is quite tedious and strenuous for them, but they took up the challenge because uppermost in their minds was the future of their students.
It further said that the efforts of the management and the teachers should have been appreciated by all the students and parents.
"However, a few students have shown disrespect by using the social media platform like xxxxxx in a demeaning manner. Teachers’ faces have been clicked during the Zoom Classes as well as from the recorded sessions and morphed into unacceptable and demeaning images and uploaded on xxxxxx (SM platform). Also during the live classes, students have
been mutilating the power point presentations and passing disrespectful comments,"adding,"Teachers are very demoralized and disheartened at this behaviour of the students. "
In light of all this,the management decided to suspend the live and recorded sessions for all  classes scheduled for Thursday. It has also lodged a complaint wwiththe Cyber Crime Branch,Goa as "this behavior is unacceptable and liable for criminal prosecution."
The management further said that recorded sessions of the Zoom Classes will be given to only those students who apply in writing for the same.
Noting that a decision will be taken on future course of action as some students have proved that they are not in sync with the school’s vision of a holistic education, the management sought to advise parents to monitor their children’s online activities and study sessions.(eom)

Goa AAP writes to Centre &State expressing serious concern over environmental destruction by three projects sanctioned during lockdown,passing through wildlife sanctuary and National Park

Prakash Kamat
Panaji,June 24-The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), Goa on Wednesday wrote to Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, with a copy to Union Minister for Environment and Forest and Climate Change Prakash Jawadekar expressing serious concern over mass scale environmental                destruction in Bhagwan Mahaveer wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park (Ecologically sensitive Western Ghats) due to approval for projects.
The letter signed by Goa Convenor of AAP Elvis Gomes and Siddarth Karapurkar, South Goa said that they were deeply  concerned over "the threat of loosing our Forest, River, and the  Environment on the whole due to these three projects which have got sanction from MoEFCC."
1.Double tracking of Railway line,
2.Expansion of National Highway 4A  and
3.Laying of Transmission line.
These approvals have been granted during the strictest phase of the lockdown when movement of people was banned, the Courts right from the Supreme Court to the  Courts at the local level have not been regular in their functioning. It is observed that the government has been using the lockdown period to approve such proposals for mega projects by taking advantage of the situation,the letter protested.
The MoEFCC is well aware that this forest area is part of the western ghats which is a contiguous forest adjoining the kali tiger reserve in Karnataka and is an important tiger corridor. It is among the eight biodiversity ‘hotest hotspots’ in the world with UNESCO categorisation as a world heritage site.
There are recordrd findings about existence of  721 plant species, 235 bird species , 219 butterfly species, 70 mammals, 75 ant species,  45 reptiles, 27 amphabians and 2 dragonfly species endemic to western ghats.
Goa’s major river, the Mhadei has already been allowed to be diverted for political considerations and now the springs and streams from Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem national park which join the Mhadei in the course followed , will be affected which will further destroy the river completely.
Though coal is an unclean fuel and world is moving towards reducing the use of coal, in Goa, the import of coal and its transportation to Karnataka is getting full boost from the Government and the double tracking is being done keeping transportation of coal in mind.
In Mormugao taluk of Goa, where the port is situated and its surrounding areas which are in close proximity to coal transportation, nearly 16,000 people have been reported to be sick due to respiratory illnesses. There are more people who are affected and are taking treatment in private medical facilities whose count is not known. If the double tracking is forced upon the people,the cost on human health as well as the impact on the rich biodiversity will be humongous,warned the AAP letter.
In view of the above, we request you to reconsider the approvals given so that lives of people are saved and  also the interest of generations yet to come is safeguarded,the AAP letter urged the State and the Central Governments.(eom)