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Unlocking Mollem during Lockdown?Shania Tahir
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FEATURE|
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Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park is Goa?s largest Protected Area that falls in the Western Ghats, one of the 36 biodiversity hotspots, recently been declared as a natural World Heritage Site. The Sanctuary is located near the town of Mollem, and about 60 km southeast from the Panaji district of the state of Goa. The total area of the sanctuary is about 240 Km2. It is an important tiger corridor between Goa and the adjoining Kali Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. India?s environment ministry has cleared multiple infrastructure projects in protected areas in the country during the lockdown period.
Goa is the only state in India that has protected the complete Western Ghats? section within a state.
Ease of doing
business spells disaster for the environment
The infrastructure projects, conversion of a road into a four-lane highway and erection of a line-in lineout (LILO) power transmission line are passing through Mollem National Park and the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary causing Forest fragmentation and edge effect were granted virtual clearances during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is worrisome that there was a third project on the double-tracking of the railway line from Castle-rock in Karnataka to Collem in Goa?that was also being considered by the government. The objective of these projects is to create the infrastructure for a coal transportation corridor from Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) across Goa and towards industries in Hubli, Dharwad, Hospet and Bellary in Karnataka cutting across the state. Goa will only serve as a path of connectivity to the port.
In the Name of
Development
There is no species-wise classification of the trees marked for felling and trees are located in areas protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, were categorized based on the height. This protected area is home to a rich number of plants, bird, butterfly, odonate, mammal, ant, reptile, fish, fungi, amphibian, orchid species, and species of lichens. There are trees of indigenous species like Terminalia elliptica, Terminalia paniculata, jambul, Terminalia bellerica, and Terminalia chebula. Terminalia elliptica or the Indian laurel, known as matti in Konkani, is the state tree of Goa. It is among the indigenous trees that are home to wildlife species such as the Malabar giant squirrel, which is the state animal of Maharashtra.
The area also has a beautiful waterfall popular as the Dudhsagar Falls, meaning the ?Sea of Milk?. The waterfall
received
its name due to
the foamy white water that falls as a result of the force of the height.
received its name due?to the?foamy white
water?that falls as a?result of the?force of the height.
Forest
fragmentation is the breaking of large forest areas into smaller pieces by anthropogenic
disturbances and over
time patches multiply
till the forest is reduced
to scattered forest islands. In the
dense
and mountainous forest, when railways and roads pass through the
area, the deep vibrations created by these
engines are bound to hamper the
natural habitat of wild animals and this Habitat fragmentation would lead to restricted breeding and wildlife
population decline
and increased zoonotic pathogens like Corona, Nipah virus etc. It will reduce water quality as?
These two projects were cleared by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in tiger habitat, using
poorly-done biodiversity assessment for the NH4A project or no environmental impact assessment
(EIA) of a power transmission line (transmission line EIA was not accessible in the public domain).
A unilateral, opaque mode
of decision-making is adopted to protect the vested interests of a polluting Industry. These are
80,000 full-grown forest trees and Pa is called Lungs of Goa. The
amount of carbon they soak cannot be overlooked merely to enhance the profits of private corporations. Further, according to the Twelfth Five Year Plan which has a
recommendation on
moving hazardous cargo such as coal away from populated areas, the upper limit for handling coal in a populated area is 50 MT. If this is going
to be implemented
at all, then these three projects are pointless as MPT is surrounded
by residential areas.
Questions remain about
the viability of the project
Concerns have been raised about the
inadequate data
on which this decision is based. Secondly,
the absence of a
plan for ?compensatory afforestation? was noted with discomfort
because Goa
lacks the land resource needed for replanting such a large number of trees and the Goa government had requested Karnataka government
for allotting 800 hectares of degraded forest
land available for compensatory afforestation in the
wake
of this deforestation in Goa. Moreover, these three
linear projects are going through a singular protected region but to understand the implications
a cumulative
EIA of all the three
projects, is needed. Apart
from this, the
passing of a high- voltage
electricity line
through protected forests is also questionable. But despite
all
these concerns, the projects appear to be moving ahead at full speed without debating any peripheral and immediate fallout.
The timing of this decision couldn?t
have
been worse considering the
severe effects of climate
change like Amphan, Nisarga, locust
attacks and COVID-19. In 2019, pre-monsoon showers in
Goa were delayed by almost two weeks and wells ran dry in villages. After leaving a trail
of destruction in its wake, monsoon brought unprecedented floods, extensive damage
to crops and houses, and washed out a section of the
Opa pipeline leaving citizens of Panaji reeling without water for a week and was followed by two consecutive
cyclones in the Arabian Sea. Yet, the
government continues to pursue its plan to fell full-grown indigenous undisturbed forest
in the Western Ghats protected area. The central government is insistent on transporting materials such as coal through
a small and ecologically fragile state at the cost of such
environmental destruction
and not pushing for renewable
energy sources ironically United Nations Environment has
bestowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the 2018 'Champion of the Earth' award for his
leadership in the promotion of solar energy. These forests that have existed for thousands of years
are irreplaceable. We demand to revoke all the clearances granted during the lockdown and public?
protect Goa?s biodiversity and ecological security.
References:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/forests-cut-in-goa-to-be-afforested-in-karnataka- activists-question-logic/story-APsQpBQnRGtT0FxhE9prjL.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/concerns-raised-over-environmental- clearances-to-two-goa-forest-projects/article31756047.ece
https://india.mongabay.com/2020/06/environment-ministry-unlocked-many-protected-areas- during-the-lockdown/
https://www.nhbs.com/flora-of-bhagwan-mahavir-molem-national-park-and-adjoinings-goa- book
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