PANAJI
Goa Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral on Wednesday announced that the State government will identify up to 70 wetlands and notify them by March 2021.Five of these wetlands including two in Benaulim and one each in Shiroda, Orlim and Macazan-Raia, will be outlined and notified first, he said.The 70 water bodies on the government’s radar, however, are far below the 285 such wetlands existing in Goa, according to the National Green Tribunal. “NGT has said that there are 285 wetlands in Goa. But they have done only an ocular survey.
NIO has been roped in to physically map them,” Cabral said, adding that public consultations will be held after the wetlands are identified to determine which of them and the exact areas to be notified. To conduct this process, the government has appointed two committees “ a grievance committee headed by retired District judge Desmond D’Costa and another technical committee led by former Principal Conservator of Forests Richard D’souza. Recently, after a major agitation by greens and activists, the Bondvol lake at St Cruz was notified by the State government as a wetland.
