Affidavit by the state of Goa in the matter of news item titled "India lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000 global forest watch" appearing in the Indian Express dated April 13, 2024. As per the State of Forests Report of 2023, the total forest cover in Goa …
The government has planned to paint the popular Goa Carnaval green to assuage popular ire against the Rs 600 crore Thapar-DuPont Nylon 6,6 project. "Environment protection" will be the theme in the Carnaval's sponsored float parades this year. The political grapevine in the state has it that the green pageant …
THE agitation against the upcoming Rs 600 crore Thapar DuPont nylon 6,6 plant in Ponda taluk in Goa took an ugly turn on January 23 when protestors blockading the approach to the site were fired upon by the police, killing 1. Following the incident and the intensification of resistence by …
The Goan government is visibly at the forefront in proclaiming a zealous adherence to the national Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) laws, mainly due to pressure from local greens. However, an interim draft of a confidential report, prepared last month by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF), alleges that …
Problems of pollution of the Rs 400-crore Thapar-DuPont project to manufacture nylon in Goa has become a bone of contention between the partners. Evidently, pollution control experts reporting directly to DuPont headquarters in the US have warned that more comprehensive planning has I to be done to control the 4 …
The iron ore industry in Goa may be asked to cough up the costs for cleaning up the environmental mess it has made. The Goan government is considering a proposal to impose an environment tax on the state's iron ore mining and ore export industry. The environment cess of upto …
The Union agriculture ministry's plan to draw up a national fisheries policy for the integrated development of fishing in India has drawn flak from organisations representing coastal fisherfolk in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The fisherfolk have objected strongly to the Union government's policy of supporting …
A unique database on mangroves -- the Mangrove Ecosystem Information Service (MEIS) -- developed by the Centre for Research in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (CRSARD) in Madras, will be operational by December. Work on MEIS is being headed by eminent scientist M S Swaminathan. CRSARD will also set up …
FISH CURRY and Rice is the catchy title of the latest in the genre of citizens' reports on the state of the environment, but it tells you little about what the book contains. It "does attempt to tell of the Goan recipe for life. And why we should join and …
GOLF ENTHUSIASTS and promoters are heading for a collision with environmentalists in Goa. In a bid to lure Japanese tourists who are keen on the game, the state tourism department has approved in recent years various proposals to set up golf courses. As a result, the state has seen intermittent …
Environmentalists in Goa are upbeat once again. Not only has the pro-Konkan railway Ravi Naik had to step down as chief minister, but his successor is none other than Wilfred D'Souza, who has been advocating realigning of the railway route. Just before the crucial meeting of the chief ministers of …
The controversy over the Konkan railway route through Goa is acquiring communal hues. The Diocesan Pastoral Council, which has adamantly opposed the coastal route contending it would cause dislocation, served notice last month on the state's Roman Catholic legislators to oppose the proposed railway actively or face the wrath of …
"EVERY year, there is the same anarchy," moaned Shailendra Biswal, a 38-year-old physicist from Utkal University. Biswal was among several hundred delegates trying to obtain details of lodging and transport at the University of Goa on January 2, the eve of the inauguration of the 80th Indian Science Congress at …
GEORGE Fernandes may have been looking for a short cut to lasting fame when he announced on July 19, 1990 the setting up of the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC). To many, the prospect of a railway line along the west coast was the fulfillment of a dream. The idea was …
Ecological factors • The present alignment passes through densely populated and cultivated coastal land. • The alternative alignment also passes through forest areas. • Trains running at a high speed will have an impact on historic buildings and disturb the peace of the residents. • Vibrations generated will die within …
SINCE THE Konkan Railway Corporation was adamant about going ahead with the project despite protests from environmentalists, Goa Foundation secretary and activist Claude Alvares decided to take the matter to court. In April, shortly before the court adjourned for the summer vacation, he filed a writ petition, but it was …
• Total length of the Konkan railway : 760 km • Cost (at 1991-92 prices) : Rs 1,391 crore • Completion date : October 1994 • Length in Goa : 106 km • Number of bridges proposed : 84 • Total track length in khazan lands : 21.176 km • …
THE GENERAL degradation of Goa's environment is symbolised by the damage being done to its khazan lands, a unique, coastal, estuarine agro-system that plays a crucial role in the state's coastal ecology. Though Goa must import foodgrains to support its 12 lakh population, agriculture is the most important occupation in …
HIS NAME has lent credibility to Goa's environmental and human rights agitations. Matanhy Saldanha, the self-effacing, 42-year-old biology teacher in Panaji's Don Bosco has been involved with these agitations from the early 1980s. In fact, Saldanha's recollections sound like a historical narrative of independent Goa's environmental and human rights activism. …
THE KONKAN Railway is suffering from a typical attack of the NIMBY syndrome -- a two-decade-old acronym popularised during the movement against nuclear power stations by young people in the West, whose slogan was Not In My Backyard. It has since come to denote what is widely recognised as an …
THE REFUSAL of the Union railway ministry and the Goa administration to participate in the Kamla Chowdhury committee, set up by the Union ministry of environment and forests to review the Konkan railway project, has rendered the work of the committee both difficult and meaningless. The railway ministry, in fact, …
