Land is a finite resource. This is particularly true of Goa, which is flanked by the Western Ghats on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. But the State’s heady mix of sun, sand, surf, forests, waterfalls and wildlife means that many people, if not everyone, wants a piece of paradise. The consequent rapid transformation of the landscape of the Pearl of the Orient speaks for itself.
Tired of living in boxed-up apartment complexes and of breathing air that is all but clean, droves of people, particularly from North India, have been making a beeline for Goa to stake claim to at least a sliver of its virgin land. What has ensued is thousands and thousands of square metres being sacrificed at the altar of ‘development’, where verdant areas housing a multitude of animals and birds are done away with to create housing for colonies of human beings instead. Hills are virtually scalped off, valleys are levelled, and even fields – which were once the cornerstone of local subsistence – are filled by truckloads of mud on which mega projects are planned.
Soon enough, protests erupt in several neighbourhoods. Disillusioned and distraught, local residents spill out onto the streets demanding that the environment be conserved and that permissions for big ticket commercial and residential complexes be denied. Emphasis is laid on overburdened water and electricity supply, low carrying capacity of the land, fears of widespread littering and pollution, and a myriad other related concerns.
But the question that begs an answer is, why were these lands sold off in the first place?
Back in the day, many Goans were proud owners of undulating terrain and maintained them with little to no construction. The advent of the hippies not only put the State on the global tourism map but also gave the local population a taste of doing business with the outside world, and so more and more land was gradually developed to accommodate a burgeoning tourism sector. It was only a matter of time until many non-Goans decided that they no longer wanted to be just tourists but residents too. They went on to do what any interested person would do: Approach the locals to purchase their lands.
Thrilled by the prospect of earning what in their eyes was a handsome price for just a piece of land, many Goans more than willingly parted with their real estate. Several others followed suit and before they could even brace for it, constructions began mushrooming in various areas. But there is little such people can do while protesting when they are the very people who decided to do away with their properties in the first place.
The lure of money – now running into crores of rupees – is certainly tempting, but it is time that Goans introspect and ask themselves whether it is truly worth selling off their land left, right and center only to be relegated to a corner in their own State. This, of course, does not include the many cases of land fraud being reported, where property is palmed off to a third party by an intermediary without the knowledge of the rightful owner. The reference being made here is to that section of the local population that is willingly giving up their land, instead of using it themselves to contribute to the local economy in whatever little way they can.
The logic is simple: Goa will continue being on sale as long as the local population keeps it on sale. It is here that the time-tested adage comes to mind, ‘People living in glass houses should not throw stones’.