We celebrate June 5 June each year as the World Environment Day and as we partake in symbolic activities to commemorate and resolve to keep our environment green and clean for the future generation. I would like to remind the readers, that during the initial summits on environmental movements, our late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had especially stressed during the Stockholm meeting in 1974, that poverty was the biggest polluter and unless the gap between the rich and the poor countries is specifically addressed and the wealthy nations contribute significantly to solve the problems of poverty, corruption and exploitation, the adverse ill effects of the overall pollution would continue forever.
It is ironical as well as paradoxical that we are slowly approaching 50 years of environmental movement initiated by the UN and in India paradoxically the, poor are dying each day due to both poverty and acute environmental pollution.
As I write, India knows that 13 people had to lay their lives to get rid of the toxic ground water and atmospheric pollution by Sterlite-Vedanta at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. It is shocking that the general public have to lay down precious lives to protect their land from air and water toxicities, fuelled by the trinity; consisting of the state and the central governments who along with the multinationals as their colluding partners have unleashed heavy metal toxicity on the hapless Tamilians at Tuticorin in particular and on India at large.
It is now in the open that Sterlite Copper and the Vedanta group has contributed thousands of crores of rupees to the BJP as well as the AIDMK parties, who today are ruling both in the country as well as the State of Tamil Nadu. It is annoying and irritating that the ruling political dispensations in India have only given or afforded lip services to the locals whilst allowing the natural resources of the states across India to be looted, plundered and exploited for personal as well as political advancement and growth of the vested interest.
Focusing on Goa, do we not witness how casinos and cruise boats are destroying our rivers, and allowing River Mandovi to be a cess-pool rich in sewage, garbage and toxic wastes but devoid of fish and marine resources. Do we care about how MPT, Jindals and the Adanis are pumping out coal dust pollution into the atmosphere around Vasco city and adding to our respiratory ailments. With oil storage tanks, both Vasco and Marmagoa are sitting on a “Crude Oil Bomb”; with explosions awaiting to happen any moment. All the environmental disasters in Goa are generated with the
active support and the blessing of the “state government of the day” with politicians in power as beneficiaries of exploitation and corruption at the cost of the poor. The destruction of the water table, illegal plundering of our natural resources, rampant sand mining, air toxicity around power guzzling steel plants and heavy metal generating units including those producing paints, dyes and batteries in our industrial estates are making Goa a living Hell.
Hence it would be pertinent at this juncture to acknowledge efforts of a few stray to individuals, who are defying those in authority by challenging them by mobilizing the public at large, into silent prayers to seek salvation from both pollution as well as turbulent times the general public are in our country, due to social, political and environmental pollution.
The people of Goa must gratefully acknowledge various green brigades as well as social and religious institutions which have done whatever possible to help alert and activate the public at large against the powerful and oppressive forces generating and disseminating pollution and adversely affecting the quality of lives of our society.
Do we realize that Goa is abundantly blessed with the pure and precious water which is today polluted alarmingly by unscientific tourism and unprincipled exploitation of our natural resources? Sad but true; do we realize that the future generations living in Goa in the next hundred years would have to remain contented with desalinated water, sea and air pollution, soils contaminated with heavy metals, fish and meats with biomagnified and toxic levels of pesticides, chemicals, heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria. One generation of Goans before us never paid for water or even dreamt that we today would be paying more for water and less for our feni. We must today foresee that the generation next would also have to pay for pure or oxygen cylinders to breath and survive.
It is high time each one of us pulls up our socks to fight the loot, plunder, rape and destruction of Goa.
From birth we are told that with the sweat of the brow one must earn our bread. Hence only with sweat, blood and serious commitment we can venture to protect Goa for ourselves and future as we have not inherited the earth from our ancestors but borrowed it from the future generations.
We must also realize that the various cancers inflicting Goa are due to our total disregard to maintaining of our environment. We must take care of our environment because if we don’t, the environment does not forgive. And, we would have to pay dearly for our sins of omission and commission.
