PANAJI
If the support from London for protests against the Mollem projects angered him and prompted Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to voice his disapproval, he has more unpalatable stuff on his table - iconic Child Environmentalist Licypriya Kangujam.
On Sunday, Kangujam tweeted her support to save Mollem, tagged Sawant and asked him to “reconsider” the decision to go ahead with the projects in the National Park, giving the ongoing #SaveMollem campaign a boost and a global dimension.
“Govt led by @DrPramodPSawant Sir wants to destroy this beautiful Mollem Forest to open for coal mining and railways lines and other projects. It is also a national park. This will endanger the lives of thousands of people & the wildlife of Mollem. Plz reconsider the decision,” the nine-year-old Kangujam’s official handle managed by a team tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
Kangujam is one of global climate change activism’s youngest icon. About a year ago, she addressed world leaders and asked them to take immediate climate actions at the United Nations Climate Conference 2019 (COP25) in Madrid, Spain.
She hails from Manipur and is a student of an International School in Bengaluru. In India, she has been campaigning for over two years to pass laws to curb high pollution levels and to incorporate ‘climate change’ literacy in school curriculum.
Meanwhile, micro-blogging site Twitter was abuzz with activity on Sunday with a group ‘Humanists of Goa’ initiating a campaign to draw wider attention to the #SaveMollem campaign.
Hundreds of environmentalists, students, researchers and scientist, besides tourism entrepreneurs including the industry association TTAG have voiced their opposition to the projects.
The three projects - - doubling of the SWR railway track, four-laning of a national highway and laying of inter-state power transmission lines - - got the nod from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) dubiously in a video-conferencing meet during the Covid-19 lockdown in April.
The projects are purportedly aimed at primarily facilitating transportation of coal between Mormugao Port and the steel and power plants in the North Karnataka region.
MPT plans to treble coal cargo it handles in the next five years and these projects are crucial to its plans.
An agitation has been brewing in Goa in recent weeks against the government’s plans to create a ‘coal corridor’ with civil society spearheading it. Opposition parties, including those who supported the projects during their time in power have joined the anti-coal chorus which is growing louder by the day.
Some 50,000 trees are to be felled for the projects in and around reserve forests in Mollem National Park, listed in UNESCO’s heritage Biodiversity Hotspots list, and the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary.
