MARGAO: Braving heavy rains, children from several villages along with senior citizens and social activists have joined the mission to create awareness on protecting Goa’s forests by protesting against the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill, 2023 and demanding that the bill be scrapped immediately.
For the last few days, children and senior citizens have been pleading for saving the forests for posterity. They further claimed that the amendment in the Forest Conservation Bill will result in deforestation and lead to disaster.
Children from Camorlim, Raia, Sanguem and Loliem-Canacona, who have ventured out of their houses in the past few days, opposing the amendment, feel that they have already lost forest covers due to constructions and can’t afford to lose more.
Speaking to media persons, few children from Camorlim and Raia said that the Forest Conservation amendment Bill, 2023, if implemented will cause floods and landslides and lead to extinction and death of species.
They claimed that almost half (46 percent) of Goa’s forests will lose protection and hence the FCA bill needs to be scrapped immediately.
“We want our future to be protected and for that protection to forest and environment is a must. We are pleading before the government to scrap the bill at the earliest and protect our forest areas,” said Diya Fernandes from Camorlim.
Christina, another girl from Raia said that forests are the roots of all life and hence we all need work to protect them.
Diana Tavares, a social activist said that this awareness protest is being held mostly at the places where the forest areas are under attack.
“Youth from Raia protested at a forest site in their village with a large perennial spring, which will lose protection if this new amendment bill is passed. Demonstrations were held by farmers from Sanguem, villagers from Camorlim on forested slopes of their village that are not yet notified which they are defending against relentless attacks from real estate and people from Loliem village, who are defending their forests from 4 huge eco-tourism projects covering 40 lakh sqm, film city, and other mega construction projects,” said Farai Divan Patel, Ecologist and Environment Activist with the Save Mollem Team.
“Protests will continue in Goa. People are determined to fight this amendment bill tooth and nail as we cannot let Goa's indigenous communities, amazing wildlife, scarce drinking water resources and a rich 12,000-year-old civilisation be destroyed,” said Farai added.
“The rural people of Goa are already in the midst of assaults by real estate, mining, tourism and industries and have been fighting for their survival. Since 46% of Goa’s forests are not yet notified, only the Supreme Court interpretation of forests as per their dictionary meaning, which is proposed to be nullified by this amendment bill, has saved half of Goa’s forests till now,” said Abhijit Prabhudesai, General Secretary of Federation of Rainbow Warriors.
“If this bill is passed, grassroot rural communities fighting to save their forests and land will lose their battles all over Goa. This cannot be allowed to happen,” Prabhudesai added.
The amendment bill exempts large forest lands from the purview of Forest Conservation Act to fast track strategic and security related projects of national importance.
“Western Ghats is one of the eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. It has been ripped apart for linear hydro and mining projects. There is a disconcerting fear that nine lakh hectares of deemed forests could be lost and mining, allied industries, entertainment and eco-tourism hubs could alter the landscape of the Western Ghats if the Forest Conservation Amendment Bill 2023 is passed,”, stated Joseph Hoover, Managing Trustee of United Conservation Movement working to protect the Western Ghats.
“While courts and reports keep pointing out the value of our forests, the government still goes on treating our forests as dispensable. Be it the Aravallis, the mangroves all along our coast, Western and Eastern Ghats, biodiversity hotspots of North-East, our rich Central Indian forests - a great part of these could no longer be considered ‘forest’ and can potentially be sold, diverted, cleared, exploited without any regulatory oversight, if the new amendment bill is passed. The proposed amendments severely compromise the constitutional mandate of the State (Article 48A) to safeguard forests,” said Yash Marwah, Co-Creator, Let India Breathe - the volunteer-run environment collective.