Mollem National Park has long been the emerald in the crown of Goa.
The green jungle that covers this steep area of the West Indian Ghats mountain range is home to leopards, Bengal tigers, pangolins, black panthers and hundreds of endemic species of flora and fauna that are not found anywhere else on the planet. The state muscular animal of Goa – the Indian hole or bison – is often seen crossing the forests, and the park’s Dudhsagar waterfall is among the highest in the country.
However, Mollem and the adjacent Bhagwan Mahaveer Shrine, which covers a protected area of 240 square kilometers, will be separated and partially cleared of three invasive projects; the doubling of a railway line, the widening of the road and an electricity transmission line.
“This is an area declared by Unesco as one of the eight hotspots in the world for biodiversity and which includes a proposed tiger reserve. This project will nullify so many things that can never be recovered, “said Claude Alvares, a Goa Foundation activist who has filed lawsuits against the three projects in the Bombay High Court and a Supreme Court committee .
Indian law prohibits construction in wild shrines, but the government has approved them in the name of public interest and the future development of Goa. However, many believe that these three projects are part of a general plan to turn India’s smallest state into a corridor for a five-fold increase in coal imports by some of India’s largest industrialists. , known for their close ties to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Cumulatively, it will involve diverting 378 hectares (934 acres) of forest from Goa, cutting 40,000 protected trees and moving more than 1.8 million tons of mud and earth from inside the sanctuary.
Activists and citizens claim that these projects were thwarted by Goa by the central government without any public consultation or transparency. They are now facing multiple legal challenges and have launched a grassroots opposition movement, unlike anything seen in Goa for decades, with thousands taking to the streets in protest. Students, artists, biologists, tourism agencies and 150 scientists have written to Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and the Supreme Court asking them to stop the projects, claiming that environmental laws have been violated or ignored. More than 8,000 people attended a recent demonstration and dozens were booked by police or arrested.
“We are not only saving the Mollem forests for their beauty, but also for the survival of life in Goa,” said artist Svabhu Kohli, who started the My Mollem campaign, which brought together local artists, lawyers, researchers, biologists and communities to increase awareness through art and the action of the impact that the projects could have on Mollem.
“They say they are doing this for the benefit of the people of Goa. But everyone in Goa knows that Mollem has a special magic, so how can it be beneficial to cut down irreplaceable forests? And if it’s for us, why were we never consulted? “
For the past three years, Goa’s main port, the Mormugao Port Trust in the north of the state, has been on an expansion path to become a hub for imported coal. Since 2018, two of India’s largest coal importers, Adani and JSW, have set up several terminals in the port.
In 2020, the environment ministry granted permission for a third coal and deepwater dredging terminal to house large coal vessels. The port currently handles 12 million tonnes of coal, but importers hope to increase this to 51 million tonnes by 2035.
Goa militants have linked coal imports to a reported increase in air pollution, lung disease and, more recently, an increase in Covid-19 deaths in villages near which coal is unloaded and transported.
Coal entering Goa is not even used in the state, but is transported across the border to steel and power plants in the vicinity of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
However, as the master plan pointed out, for this long-term expansion plan to be feasible, the old single railway line in Goa and the winding road, both of which passed through Mollem to reach neighboring states, should be widened to copes with heavy coal trucks and frequent freight trains needed to transport coal across the border. “This is the most important initiative and lifeline for future port operations,” said the master plan on doubling the railway line.
The extension of the railway was the first of three controversial projects that obtained the stamp of approval from the National Health Council (NBW), which is under the Ministry of Environment, in December 2019. The project, which involves cutting deep tunnels in the sanctuary and overturning 1.8 million tons of soil was justified to meet future customer demand. But locals say the line is rarely busy.
Former head of the Goa forestry department, Richard D’Souza, had initially refused to approve the railway project in 2013 because it was useless and unjustifiably destructive to the delicate biodiversity of Mollem.
Mollem, harta Goa
“I didn’t think it was appropriate for the railway to be doubled in the sanctuary because I saw all these animals there with my own eyes, the black panther, the bats, the hole and the tigers, and the biodiversity is nowhere to be found,” D’Souza said. “It was also unnecessary because there weren’t many passengers on that line.”
The government has commissioned an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project. However, it was carried out by an academic who is also in the NBW government, which later approved the railway project in December 2019. “You can see what a complete conflict of interest is like,” Alvares said.
“Doubling the railway will be a disaster, there is no doubt about it,” D’Souza added. “The whole sanctuary is very steep and you will have to cut deep into the ground and it will take a huge amount of trees to cut down. The famous Dudhsagar waterfall is located near the slopes and will be damaged in the works. He should leave it as it is; which will save the sanctuary, which will save wildlife, biodiversity, everything ”.
The other two projects that will affect Mollem – the widening of the road on a four-lane highway and the initial stages of a new power line – were approved in April by BNW.
The green lighting of the projects by the central government has caused outrage in Goa, with many unaware that they are even underway because of what Nandini Velho, a Goa wildlife biologist, described as “a complete lack of information and lack of transparency “.
Lawyer Sreeja Chakraborty has filed a legal appeal against the highway project for what he called “clear discrepancies in application.” She pointed out that the EIA conducted for the highway specified that only one bird species was found in Mollem. “One bird, in all the 200 square kilometers of a wildlife sanctuary, when anyone walks through Mollem will see several species, including the domestic birds of Goa, the yellow-necked bulb. This is just absurd and disgusting. But if you do not record what is there, then no one will know what is lost, “she said.
“I can’t defend the widening of the road based on traffic data, it’s not rising,” Chakraborty said. “It is part of a multiple attack on Goa to help expand the coal port and at every step along the way we have found that the proper procedure has not been followed.”
The state and central government is justifying the new power line, which will raise six 22-meter-high poles through Mollem, as needed to bring electricity to remote areas of Goa and say it requires less than 0.25 hectares of land. The project has already started and under cover of the blockade in April, 20,000 trees on the edge of the sanctuary have been cut down to make way for the power station.
Activists say the power line will conveniently serve the interests of coal imports, providing more energy to the port and allowing the train’s engines to switch to electric so that it can operate faster, more frequently and more efficiently for future coal transport. “There is nothing in the documents linking the transport line to the railway, but the situation on the ground is very clear,” Chakraborty said.
Subhash Chandra, the state government’s chief forest chief conservator, said the new highway would halve the time it takes to drive through the sanctuary. “We are taking all necessary measures so that there will be no conflict with wildlife and to ensure minimal damage to forests,” he said, noting that a number of animal crossings, underpasses and gates would be installed around the road and path. railways. to prevent collisions. However, environmentalists have been tough. “This is a forest, not a circus,” Alvares said. “Wild animals will not follow signs to cross a road safely.”
Defending all three projects, Chandra said: “This is to meet human, commercial and business needs. India is a developing country, and our role in the forestry department is to balance conservation with development needs. The environment is not a static thing, nature has an incredible power to adapt and come back, and the status quo cannot continue forever, Goa must progress. “
Pramod Sawant, the chief minister of the BJP in Goa, has repeatedly denied that any of these projects are to increase coal transport capacity, describing them as a “nation-building exercise” without “any threat to Mollem”. “. In November, he promised that coal imports to the Mormugao Port Trust would be reduced by 50% and said he was seeking assurances from the center that Goa would not become a coal hub. The Adani Group has denied any role in the projects affecting Mollem.
Meanwhile, Save Mollem protests and campaigns continue unabated in Goa’s villages and towns, inspiring a new generation of young Goans who have clashed with politicians and government officials for answers.
John Countinho, an environmentalist who was recently booked by police for his involvement in the protests, said he feared that if the projects continued, “it would provide Goa as a coal corridor for years – making it unlikely that they would move from coal to renewable energy sources, as they would like profits from their investments in coal infrastructure. “
Kohli, the artist and activist, said that the future of Goa’s ecology is “hanging by a thread”. “Goa had a beautiful coastline from an ecological point of view and, due to greed and lack of vision, we lost a lot of our diversity,” he said. “We can’t let the same thing happen to Mollem.”