At 57 years, he should be leading a team of top-notchlawyers in courtroom battles, cracking messy land deals and taking his wife andfamily on a client sponsored foreign junket, but for Andre Pereira, being alawyer is none of these. He does not believe in litigations. “I don’t likefights and try to solve disputes and bring people together”, says Andre. Hisviewpoint leaves many practicing lawyers red-faced, as they feel he is not evenan advocate if he does not survive on litigations.
Born in the days after Liberation, Andre has memories ofthat part of Vasco that was all green. “Our world was complete within itself.We grew our own paddy, fished in the lake beyond and even drank water from thestreams nearby” says the romantic. His home was in the green valley of Mangor -Dhaktallem that was soon invaded by the migrants. “They destroyed the hills andthe grazing grounds for our cattle. Sewage started flowing into the scream,mosquitoes literally confined us indoors”, reminisces the soft spoken Andre.His words, the only sign of how the romantic turned into a fighter.
In 1971, Vasco grew its’ last paddy crop in the lush green valley,which also was the scene of the ghastly Naptha fire in 2011. When sewagestarted killing the fields, Andre led the local farmers to start Vasco FarmersAssociation. “Our efforts were dampened as law would not recognise us, theoriginal landowners. They considered only tenants. So , we formed anorganisation of tenants” and Andre’s fight was noticed. His letter to HighCourt of Bombay against MMC sanctioned rogue sewage disposal was converted intoa writ petition. The interest in law came not out of the fact that the maidenHC case was a failure but more because “I wanted to know where does my land andmy home stand in the eyes of the law”.
Today, Andre is Goa’s ambassador in a bid to preserve its’unique community lands or communidades. The communidades own practically 70% ofGoa’s land and water bodies. It was his untiring effort that brought all thecommunidades together under the umbrella of Association of Componentes ofComunidades. “We are not an NGO but provider of information. NGOs means money andCommunidades are built on the concept of preserving the traditional community,the family. It is about sharing and not grabbing”, says Communidade’s mostcelebrated ‘dotor’. His lone voice, the only one of hope for Goa’s oldestinstitution.
