Last week, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant launched the Biodiversity Atlas for Mayem village -- said to be the first document graphically depicting the full range of biodiversity that the village is home to and that has been documented in the village including plant and animal life. The launch of the atlas was accompanied by much fanfare and included a speech by Sawant exhorting the locals to preserve the biodiversity of their own villages, since, in his words, there is no one else who is better placed to do it.
Sawant at the function gave the example of the destruction suffered in the hilly villages of Uttarakhand, a State that has been at the receiving end of unprecedented landslides and rain fury as he cited the need to protect and preserve the ecosystems of the villages.
Contrary to what Sawant preached for the protection of the environment and ecosystem including plant and animal life, State departments are busy carting off thickly treed portions of Goa’s hillsides and other lands for real estate projects, and there are real estate giants brazenly clearing off chunks of hilly lands in Goa.
Just last week, the village of Moira -- which is grappling with unabated constructions along hillsides -- witnessed a boulder come rolling down from a construction site on a hillside and crashed into a two-wheeler rider injuring her. A small trailer perhaps of the real destruction Goa could face going forward.
When the law clearly states that hillsides with a slope gradient greater than 1:10 are out of bounds for construction, the question obviously that needs to be asked is how the permission for the construction was given in the first place.
One of the biggest causes of the destruction that the hill states have witnessed this season is the illegal and unabated building along hillsides. As videos have shown, those buildings are the first to give way at the time of heavy rains. If we are serious with our ecosystems, we need to tighten construction permissions and previously no-go areas that are today being parcelled out for real estate.
The government needs to stop paying lip service to the cause of the environment. It is not enough that we record the huge biodiversity if, on the other hand, we are doing nothing to protect and preserve them, or worse actively allow greedy private players to grind our biodiversity into mud. The state government has to play a proactive role as guardian of the environment and do all that is within its powers to clamp down on illegalities.
Tokenism is no substitute for real action and if anything, reeks of hypocrisy. Preparing atlases of Goa’s biodiversity is a good step in the right direction but needs to be backed up with real action to preserve the biodiversity we have left before it is too late. The biodiversity atlas may be a good idea, but the government has miles to go to win the confidence of the people.
