Team Herald
PANJIM: In a resounding victory, the Goa River Sand Protectors’ Network (GRSPN) won its case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday, as the State government agreed to withdraw all Environmental Clearances (ECs) granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for extraction of sand in Goa’s rivers.
The government informed the NGT that it would undertake the District Survey Report (DSR) as required under the sustainable sand mining guidelines and only thereafter apply for fresh ECs.
The NGT, after recording the statements of the Advocate General Devidas Pangam, disposed of the appeal filed by the GRSPN against the SEIAA’s ECs for sand mining in various zones across the State.
The Goa River Sand Protectors’ Network, an organisation of individuals had consistently filed complaints against illegal sand mining in their villages. The Network is hosted by the NGO Goa Foundation, but does not belong to it.
The members of the organisation and the GF, being deeply concerned about the erosion of river banks and destruction of the riverine ecology from the illegal sand mining activities, decided to join hands to bring the activity to a complete halt.
The appeal filed by the GRSPN on November 17, 2021, challenged the four environment clearances, all dated October 12, 2021, issued by the SEIAA for sand mining to the North Goa District Collector for four stretches along the River Chapora. Based on the ECs, the Collector was empowered to sublet leases to individuals for sand mining.
During the pendency of the appeal, the State had given an undertaking to the NGT that no permits for sand extraction would be granted till the matter was disposed of. This position has been maintained for the past three years.
The main challenges in the appeal were two-fold. First was a District Survey Report (DSR) was not prepared by the State government, which is mandatory under the EIA Notification, as the DSR must form the basis for an application for an EC for sand mining. The NGT has unequivocally reinforced this aspect of the law in several judgments and further stated that there can be no exceptions to the rule.
The second ground for challenge was that the estuarine area of the River Chapora is highly sensitive especially as it is one of the prime grounds for breeding of turtles, apart from sand dunes and mangroves in the vicinity.
On Monday, when the matter came up for hearing, the Advocate General made a statement that the Goa government has decided not to pursue the four ECs that were issued in October 2021 as they were issued without the DSR. Instead the government is now preparing a DSR as required by law and fresh applications for ECs will be made thereafter.
In view of this statement, the NGT disposed of the appeal by recording that the ECs had become infructuous as they will no longer be given effect to.
Senior Advocate Norma Alvares, assisted by Adv Om D’Costa argued on behalf of the Goa River Sand Protectors’ Network.
When contacted, senior advocate Norma Alvares said, “I am very glad that the government has finally accepted what we have been saying for the past three years, that you require a district survey report which a comprehensive report involving all departments and all the areas where you are proposing to give sand mining leases, to examine the impact of them on the river and on the adjacent banks.”
“We said this to the government in November 2021 when we filed the appeal because the government was relying on the pre-feasibility study by National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), which was given to the biodiversity department. The objective of the report was biodiversity,” Alvares said.
“The NIO report stated where sand is found. Also it mentioned that a study has to be done on two things -- one is the impact and the other is the rate of replenishment which is a very important thing. That is the primary objective of the district survey report,” Alvares said.
“The government should have paid attention because law says that it is required and there is NGT order also which says that a DSR is the basis for an application to be considered. If you do not do the basis for the application to be considered then how will the certificate for environment clearance (EC) stand?” she asked.
“NIO is not taking onus for the places of sand mining. It gives quantity and not impact and rate of replenishment. We raised the issue that the places where the permissions are being given are estuary area of Chapora river which is ecologically very fragile. At one side in Morjim, the turtle nesting site, and there are sand dunes and mangroves,” Alvares added.
“Today (Monday), the Advocate General made a statement that they have decided not to proceed on the basis of those environment clearances all dated October 12, 2021. He said they will not issue leases for sand mining but instead prepare a DSR and once it is prepared an application for environment clearance will be made. We succeeded fully. We had asked for cancellation of the environment clearances. The government has wasted three years by not doing DSR,” she said.
Director of Goa Foundation, Claude Alvares said, “It is a victory of sorts for anti-sand mining activists. They have to be congratulated for getting together because as you know there was a sand mining mafia.”
“This mafia was doing sand mining with full protection of police and the other authorities and the benefit of illegal mining was shared by all the authorities. It was very difficult at times to monitor the illegal mining because there was danger to people's lives. The Network was battling at the NGT where the latter was insisting on procedure being followed but the Goa government was saying that it is following the procedure,” Claude said.
“However, they were relying on NIO reports instead of DSRs, which was not as per the requirement. But finally after three years today (Monday) the government conceded that the DSR report was mandatory and informed the NGT that it has decided to withdraw all the ECs and issue them after preparing DSRs,” he said.
“It is the victory of the network. They had to work very hard for two to three years to resolve these issues of illegal sand mining and challenge the ECs. It is a good example for citizens when they get together as a group on specific issues they can always resolve any issues,” the environment crusader said.
One of the petitioners Viraj Bakre of Khandola, said, “We welcome the NGT order. We do not want legal sand mining to stop. Once it is stopped then the illegal sand mining starts. It has affected everybody. For the common man, legal sand extraction should start. It is the responsibility of the government to complete the formalities required under law. That is not being done and because of that people are indulging in illegal extraction. It should be done in a proper manner.”
Ashok Shirodkar said of Savoi Verem, said, “I hope the order will instill some sense of fear and illegal sand mining will stop. The rampant and reckless sand mining has caused landslides.”
Shailesh Shetye said, “Illegal sand mining is still going on at Maina-Navelim in Bicholim taluka. We have been fighting it for the last so many years. People in general were not aware of this. The NGT order is very good and it should be enforced in the spirit of law.”