Prakash Kamat
Panaji,July 10-A total of 427 students mainly from across Goa and a few from adjacent States have written to the Central Empowered Committee(CEC) of the Supreme Court to express their concern about the three linear intrusions projects in and around Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary.
Their letter centered around the emerging paradigm “one health” which explores the linkages between healthy people and healthy environments.
The students state that the “expansion into new geographical territories due to such linear intrusions increases chances of human – animal interactions and the frequency of vectors and viruses coming into contact with humans.”
The three linear projects in Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park are the NH4A highway, doubling of the railway track and setting up of transmission lines, two of which were cleared during the lock-down.
The signatories further added that deforestation could lead to a rise in the occurrence of diseases like COVID-19. This makes it even “more important for environmental governance to be given the seriousness it requires and due process to be followed, given that among other factors, it is directly relevant to human health.”
Specifically with respect to forests in Goa, the students have highlighted the cases related to the Kyasanur Forest Disease(KFD), where the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that “clearing of forest area for cultivation causes changes in tick fauna and is considered as an important risk factor for KFD outbreaks.”
Apart from physical health, the students mentioned that these green spaces were very important for their mental well being. They stated that changes to natural life support systems are already impacting human health and are projected to drive the majority of the global burden of disease over the coming century, hitting today’s most vulnerable and future generations the hardest.
“We must realise that such projects have a huge socio-economic and health implications in addition to the ecological damage. The inter-connectedness between natural eco-systems and human societies is at the forefront of achieving sustainable development goals as well as ensuring human well-being and safety”, according to Dr. Prashanth N Srinivas, a public health researcher at Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru.
They requested the committee members of the CEC to act in a way that will secure their collective future and to reconsider the three clearances as these forest were important for their collective well-being.(eom)
Students say it with illustrations:
Panaji,July 10-A total of 427 students mainly from across Goa and a few from adjacent States have written to the Central Empowered Committee(CEC) of the Supreme Court to express their concern about the three linear intrusions projects in and around Mollem National Park and Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary.
Their letter centered around the emerging paradigm “one health” which explores the linkages between healthy people and healthy environments.
The students state that the “expansion into new geographical territories due to such linear intrusions increases chances of human – animal interactions and the frequency of vectors and viruses coming into contact with humans.”
The three linear projects in Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park are the NH4A highway, doubling of the railway track and setting up of transmission lines, two of which were cleared during the lock-down.
The signatories further added that deforestation could lead to a rise in the occurrence of diseases like COVID-19. This makes it even “more important for environmental governance to be given the seriousness it requires and due process to be followed, given that among other factors, it is directly relevant to human health.”
Specifically with respect to forests in Goa, the students have highlighted the cases related to the Kyasanur Forest Disease(KFD), where the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that “clearing of forest area for cultivation causes changes in tick fauna and is considered as an important risk factor for KFD outbreaks.”
Apart from physical health, the students mentioned that these green spaces were very important for their mental well being. They stated that changes to natural life support systems are already impacting human health and are projected to drive the majority of the global burden of disease over the coming century, hitting today’s most vulnerable and future generations the hardest.
“We must realise that such projects have a huge socio-economic and health implications in addition to the ecological damage. The inter-connectedness between natural eco-systems and human societies is at the forefront of achieving sustainable development goals as well as ensuring human well-being and safety”, according to Dr. Prashanth N Srinivas, a public health researcher at Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru.
They requested the committee members of the CEC to act in a way that will secure their collective future and to reconsider the three clearances as these forest were important for their collective well-being.(eom)
Students say it with illustrations:
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