WGEEP recommended that there shall be no linear projects in Mollem wildlife sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park:Madhav Gadgil

Prakash Kamat

Panaji, September 10- Environmentalist Dr. Madhav Gadgil who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel(WGEEP) has reiterated unequivocally that the WGEEP had recommended that there shall be no linear projects in Mollem wildlife sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park in Goa.

In a recent email addressed to his friends and the people of Goa at large, Dr. Gadgil pointed out that hid attention was recently drawn to a mischievous disinformation campaign that has been launched using  his name in Goa by those who want to justify certain thoroughly unjustifiable linear projects in protected areas such as Mollem Wildlife Sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park. "Our Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel had suggested that the Western Ghats be  divided into zones of three levels of ecological sensitivity; the ecologically most sensitive localities were assigned to ESZ1,  those with medium level of sensitivity were labelled as ESZ2 and the those with lower levels of sensitivity were labelled as ESZ3. We had suggested that there should be no interference of any sort in the ecologically most sensitive zone ESZ1. For ecological sensitivity we had used a well defined multifactorial quantitative index that was arrived at after an open discussion through public forums including a publication widely circulated scientific fortnightly Current Science. An important yardstick for deciding on the values of this quantitative index above which the areas will be classified as the most sensitive were the levels in the areas currently classified as protected areas. It was specifically mentioned that all currently protected areas are to be included in the ecologically most sensitive zone ESZ1 in which there must not be any human interference. So it is very clear that WGEEP recommends that there shall be no linear projects in Mollem wildlife sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park",said Dr. Gadgil.  

This was the e-mail which brought to Dr. Gadgil's notice how his name was being misused in Goa by vested interests:

Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 10:46 PM Nandini Velho <nandinivelho@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Professor Gadgil,

My name is Nandini Velho and I am a wildlife biologist who did my MSc. from NCBS. I remember meeting you briefly at our institute when you came for our annual talks.

I am pasting an article in the Hindu about forest clearances that were given to multiple forests across India, including my home-state of Goa where three projects are slated in Goa's largest protected area, Bhagwan Mahavir WLS.

Sir, on one hand, a lot of citizens from across Goa are coming together, including artists and others (please see attached). On the other hand, I think there are some propaganda groups (one of the projects is being run by Sterlite) are publishing things in your name:

https://www.facebook.com/TransformingGoa/

I have attached a citizens toolkit on the issue of Mollem. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to send a short one-page statement, not in response to propaganda and news in your name, but about Goa's forests, the Western Ghats and the need for due process in the projects of Mollem?

Best wishes

Nandini

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