Mahatma Gandhi had said “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed”. It is precisely on account of this never ending greediness of those in Power that Goa finds itself in the very sorry state that it has plummeted to. This all round degradation and devastation accelerated and galloped, over the last decade in particular, with those we elected to serve us choosing instead to hurriedly make the best for themselves. The fresh air that our forefathers enjoyed is now history. There has been an absolute failure to ensure a clean and healthy environment. The conservation and protection of Goa’s ecology was vital but in the name of development we are facing the brunt and suffocated in a much polluted atmosphere, while our forest cover, hills and fields vanishing. Goa today finds itself enveloped in chronic administrative chaos with deep rooted rampant organized corruption, nepotism and sheer bad governance. Despite being as optimistic as one can really be, realistically it is an extremely uphill task to now rescue Goa from the current administrative mess and restore the democratic and secular values while safeguarding for posterity what little remains of our once beautiful and tranquil State. Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States of America had so rightly said “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people”.
