Begin door-to-door campaign to garner villagers support to preserve land for posterity
File photo of people protesting against a project on Bhagwati plateau.
CANACONA
Taking their battle to protect ‘Common Land’ for posterity to the ground, members of Citizens Committee of Loliem-Polem (CCLP) began a door-to-door campaign to protect the village’s rich biodiversity and sensitive ecology.
Responding to a report in The Goan stating that the Loliem-Polem Comunidade will effectively be parting with 33% of its entire land of 81 lakh sq. mtrs by leasing out 27.3 lakh sq. mtrs of its land for seven projects, CCLP Convenor Dennis Fernandes said villagers of Loliem-Polem “condemn the blatantly illegal and desperate attempts of the Comunidades to sell the common lands of the village”
“These common lands of the village must be conserved if the villages have to survive. Villagers possess scientific, practical knowledge of the incomparable sensitivity and fragility of these plateaus, and their own precarious existence and complete dependence on the plateaus,” said Dennis.
Added another environment crusader Prashant Pagi, “We have begun a door-to-door campaign, and we are taking the battle to the ground. With our very own and every villager's survival at stake, the villagers of Loliem-Polem are prepared to take the struggle to whatever levels necessary, in order to conserve our, everybody’s plateaus.”
“What did the Comunidade do to help revive agriculture in Loliem-Polem village? And does that mean that if agriculture is stopped, we should sell the land to concretize the place and destroy biodiversity and eco-sensitivity?”
Shailesh Pagi, ex-sarpanch of Loliem-Polem village, said resolutions had been passed in previous Gram Sabhas to conserve the plateau.
“These resolutions must be respected by the village Comunidade. However, the Comunidade has purposely turned a blind eye and is on a spree to process applications for various grants to non-traditional uses.”
Fernandes claimed that most Comunidade members (components) themselves had cattle and fields.
“At one point, Loliem-Polem Comunidade President Vishwajeet Warik himself had said that wild animals come to the village. Now, by destroying biodiversity, does he want the animals to go to the proposed Film City in Loliem to make a Lion King movie,” asked Fernandes with sarcasm.
Reacting to Warik’s allegation that there are encroachments on Comunidade lands, Loliem-Polem Biodiversity Management Committee Chairman Manoj alias Dutta Prasad Prabhugaonkar asked: “If that is the case, why did the Comunidade remain silent for all these years? Did they not have powers to stop it?”
“Our plateaus are critical to our life and are only source of water, grazing lands of cattle, agriculture, forest produce, biodiversity, wildlife and various environmental services provided by the plateau.”
