Dr Joe D’Souza
All that glitters is often not gold, and that which is considered green is often unclean. The sad reality in Goa today is chaos and confusion about what constitutes holistic and sustainable development.
Have we seriously sat down and established what exactly is Goa’s core competence? Every three decades, depending on the half-baked politicians, mostly individuals with ulterior motives and interests, we have changed our focus and slogans concerning “development”.
Upto to 1970, we focused on traditional agriculture and fisheries. There was rural based and farm derived cottage industries. Thus Goan sausages, pickles, vinegars, feni, preserved meats and fish were our strength. We made full use of the coconut palm; coir, ropes, shades, white wash from shell and clams and flooring from cow dung. What we required was proper supply of water, electricity, tarred roads, and education. We have been rich in water supply, solar energy, biomass in the form of dense forests, straw from agriculture as a byproduct. We recycled our waste and used the decentralized water system, as our wells were full of mineral rich water. There was no need for migration to urban areas as wealth was equitable between urban and rural areas and a divide absent.
All we needed to ensure was that education, roads, electricity and commerce developed sustainability from where the Portuguese left us, avoiding influx or efflux of our people, through holistic planning by governments of the day.
Sadly, after 1990, the agro-based development of Goa was upturned and toppled. Centralized water supply and water treatment plants were put in place. Panjim was urbanized with concrete structures and sewage plants, with garbage becoming a new challenge. Our ground water became polluted, our creeks became cesspools and our mangroves used as new dumping grounds for garbage. Our river Mandovi, the lifeline of Goa, which sustained households, as it was rich in clams, oysters, rock fish, bivalves became polluted and livelihoods were lost. Today, with casinos and cruise boats the city of Panjim has become a den of crime, and a source of sickness, pestilence and diseases.
If we were to study where the plot for development of Goa was lost, it was between 1985 to 2015. It was during these years that Goan farmers and traditional occupations were hurt the most. Agriculture dependent farmers were forced to become truck owners, traditional ramponkars also died a slow death with large trawler owners from outside. Today we have lamanis, ghantis from outside supplying us with fish rich in formalin.
Our illegal and unsustainable mining has now generated a new class of mining dependents. Before that, the hinterland was a farmers paradise. Bicholim was the granary of Goa. Sattari was teeming with wildlife. Sanguem and Canacona sustained itself appreciably in traditional occupations. However, unsustainable mineral exploitation and utter disregards to the “aquifers” has titled the balance against farming, water harnessing and biomass productivity, thus not only making the usage of solar energy irrelevant but killing traditional livelihoods and forcing Goans in the hinterland to exploit “non-renewable” resources.
Ironically, throughout Goa, which could have 24x7x365 water and electricity through proper damming or reservoir planning and using gradients, slopes in our ecosystem to generate power supply, successive politicians and people at large in Goa, have over the years specialized in the business of real estate.
Goans of yore produced not only sausages and feni, but Goan musicians, bakers, carpenters, cooks, doctors, nannies, financers and managers that excelled worldwide.
Today we are dishing out dependents “ casino dependents, mining dependents, tourism dependents, etc.
Our concrete jungles and mega housing projects are destroying our ecosystem. The “dubious green Goans” are wolves in sheep’s clothing supporting this migrant-inflicted destruction of Goa.
What can you aspect from a butcher to whom a cow is sold? Goans must be wary of a section of Goan greens, who use the green label to extort and stall developmental projects, after they themselves are surreptitiously involved in the business of property sale and construction. As Goans, we seem to have lost our plot or have we missed the bus.
Interesting, many Goans are themselves to be blamed. Our landlords sell Goa to the highest non-Goan bidder. Every other Goan prides himself in buying and selling Goa to earn easy money. Land conversions are rampant, often by Goans, directed towards the benefit of our politicians and outstation sharks. Every TCP minister and politician in power has a rag to riches story of success.
Whilst Goa is in deep slumber, Caranzalem, Dona Paula, Porvorim, Calangute, and the entire beach front of Goa is throttled by the grey jungle catalyzed by the dubious green sharks, who involve themselves in fake encounters, with the real estate lobby but have a tacit understanding as they themselves are involved in property dealings directly or sit pretty “on commissions”.
Sadly “Mother Goa” is a victim of greed of the Goans, who have allowed migrants not just to settle here peacefully but act as traitors facilitating the destruction of Goa for eternity.
