VASCO
On Sunday, hordes of people from Vasco and neighbouring areas were seen at Vareg Island to extract clams (tisreos) from the river bed.
Local residents and environmentalists termed this incident as rape and an assault on nature that no sane human being would appreciate.
On the pretext that there is no electricity in south Goa, hundreds of men, women and children waded into the knee-deep waters at low tide to remove clams from the site.
Many felt that it was a mass massacre carried out impudently and irresponsibly by people who cared a damn for the environment and the biodiversity of that area.
“Earlier there were plenty available in all the rivers of Goa but for the last few years the yield of tisreos has been reducing with wide margins.
Vareg island is known as a favourite breeding ground for tisreos. For many local tribal families from the neighbourhood, the extraction and sale of these tisreos is a means of livelihood.” Said Chicalim Biodiversity Chairman Cyril Fernandes.
“However, the locals are careful of the sizes they extract in view of its numbers depleting in recent times. And therefore they collectively decide the dates and times as per the tides to venture out into the river and extract their daily requirement. It has been a sustainable activity they have been carrying out since ages without fail,” Said Fernandes
Fernandes added that Vareg island, area around St Jacinto island and the riverbank along the Sancoale village have been traditional breeding grounds of clams (tisreos), oysters (kallvam) and the protected species of window-pane oysters (menddios).
“But due to unscientific exploitation and other industrial factors, the yield of these marine species has dwindled down substantially. The respective Chicalim and Sancoale Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) had called for the intervention of the Goa State Biodiversity Board to regulate the extraction of these clams from unscrupulous invaders who come and ransack the riverbed not just of clams but of small sizes and fresh seeds thus destroying the biodiversity of the area,” Said Fernandes
“The Chicalim Biodiversity Heritage Site Committee had proposed to declare the Vareg site as a biodiversity heritage site and a resolution to that effect has been passed, approved by the Chicalim BMC and sent to the Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB) through the Chicalim Panchayat. They are awaiting the implementation of the same from the GSBB for the last one year,” Fernandes informed.
In the meanwhile, last fortnight, the GSBB had issued guidelines to monitor such sensitive breeding sites and regulate the activity. The respective BMCs of all village panchayats having such breeding grounds are supposed to implement these guidelines forthwith.
