PANAJI
The Goa government has urged the Centre to drop 40 villages from being categorised as Ecologically (Eco) Sensitive Areas (ESAs) since they do not meet the criteria set out by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
The seven-member committee headed by retired IFS Sanjay Kumar, constituted by MoEF&CC to finalise the ESAs of Goa region, on Monday held a meeting with the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral. During the meeting, the State reiterated its demand for exclusion of 40 villages from ESAs.
Speaking to media persons on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said that 40 villages need to be dropped from the 99 villages, which are identified in the draft notification of ESAs. He said that in 59 villages that are proposed for inclusion no red category industries including commercial mining would be allowed.
“I have been following up on the issue since I became the Chief Minister in 2019. They had earlier proposed that 99 villages should be categorised as ESAs. They had three criteria “ the village has to be contiguous with the Western Ghats, should be at a certain elevation above sea level and the presence of diverse species of plants and animals. After understanding the issue, we proposed that 40 villages can be dropped.... I had sent a proposal to environment minister Bhupendra Yadav, last year, to have them dropped,” Sawant said.
“If they want, they can add another 10 villages that are contiguous, but, actually these 40 villages do not meet the criteria,” he added.
Sawant said that it is very important that we protect the environment, especially the Western Ghats. “There are some doubts in the minds of villagers. But it is not like if a village is notified as an ESA, farming and building of houses will be disallowed. They can go ahead with their day to day activities. There are list of activities that are allowed and not allowed. Only red category industries and commercial mining are banned in ESAs,” Sawant said.
The High Level Working Group in its report submitted in 2014- based on which four draft notifications were issued with latest one in 2022 “ had divided Goa’s Western Ghat region into three talukas identifying 99 villages “ Sattari (56), Sanguem (38) and Canacona (3).
Raising its strong objection, the State had pointed out that out of Goa’s total geographical area of 3,702sq km, it is hardly left with 342 sq km area (only 9.25%), which can be made use of for growth and development. He said that the rest comprises forest area, CRZ, agricultural land and green cover.
