PANAJI
Union Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change Prakash Javadekar feigned ignorance about opposition to the three controversial linear projects proposed in and around the protected forests at Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mollem National Park in Goa.
"Nothing in writing has come to me so far. I will consider it when anything comes to me," Javadekar said, when his attention was drawn to it at a press conference he addressed at the State Secretariat on Sunday.
Dozens of representations have been sent digitally and by post to the MoEF&CC after the projects got the crucial National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) clearance in an apparently cavalier video-conferencing meet held during the national lockdown in April.
Former members of the NBWL, conservation scientists, researchers, wildlife enthusiasts, tourism entrepreneurs and others from civil society in Goa and across the country have been protesting since in Goa.
Javadekar also declined to take questions on the Mhadei water diversion dispute between Goa and Karnataka saying the matter is sub judice and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will give a detailed explanation on it.
