PANAJI
The seven-member committee of the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on Monday said that concern raised by the State government and the views of the locals will be taken into consideration before finalising the eco-sensitive areas (ESAs) of Goa region of Western Ghat.
The committee headed by retired IFS Sanjay Kumar on Monday held deliberation on ESA with the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral and other officials.
The Ministry in its draft notification issued in July, 2022 had listed 99 villages- spread across Sattari, Sanguem and Canacona- as ESA.
Speaking to media persons post meeting, Kumar said that the matter is still under examination and exact time frame for finalising ESA cannot be decided.
“We understand that the state government has taken the views of all the locals and they have communicated their views to us. The matter is under examination,” Kumar said.
He said that all the aspects and views will be considered before arriving at the final decision.
“We have not formed our view yet. We will consider all the aspects. There is already a draft notification issued by the centre after a lot of examination and consideration of Madav Gadgil report and High Level Working Group report,” Kumar said.
The draft notification was strongly opposed by the State government as well as the opposition.
The State in its representation to the Ministry had requested to include only 59 villages as ESA.
The High Level Working Group in its report submitted in 2014 had divided Goa’s Western Ghat region into three talukas identifying 99 villages “ Sattari (56), Sanguem (38) and Canacona (3).
However, the State later divided Sanguem taluka into Sanguem and Dharbandora in 2015.
In its representation to the Centre in October, last year, the State requested the Centre to include 59 villages that meet the required criteria, in the Draft Notification for the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Areas, in order to prevent overlapping protection regimes and to maintain uniform boundaries and contiguity.
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.
