Mollem National Park has long been the emerald in Goa’s crown.
The verdant jungle that covers this steep part of the Western Ghats mountain range in India is home to leopards, Bengal tigers, pangolins, black panthers and hundreds of endemic species of flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Goa’s muscular state animal – the gaur or Indian bison – is often trudged through the forests, and the park’s Dudhsagar waterfall is one of the highest in the country.
Still, Mollem and the adjacent Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary, which covers a protected area of 150 square miles, will be fragmented and partially deforested by three invasive projects; the duplication of a railway line, road extension and an electricity transmission line.
“This is an area designated by UNESCO as one of the world’s eight biodiversity hotspots and includes a proposed tiger reserve. This project will undo so much that can never be restored, ”said Claude Alvares, an activist at the Goa Foundation who has filed suit against all three projects before the Bombay Supreme Court and a Supreme Court committee.
Indian law prohibits construction in wildlife sanctuaries, but the government has approved them in the name of the common good and Goa’s future development. However, many believe these three projects are part of a master plan to turn India’s smallest state into a corridor for a fivefold increase in coal imports by some of India’s biggest industrialists, known for their close ties to the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).
Cumulatively, it means that 378 hectares (934 acres) of forest in Goa will be diverted, 40,000 protected trees will be cut down and more than 1.8 million tons of mud and soil will be moved from the sanctuary.
Activists and citizens allege that these projects were forced on Goa by the central government without any public consultation or transparency. They are now subject to multiple legal challenges and have sparked a grassroots opposition movement that has been different from Goa for decades, with thousands taking to the streets in protest. Students, artists, biologists, tourism organizations and 150 scientists have written to India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and the Supreme Court, asking them to stop the projects, arguing that environmental laws have been violated or ignored. More than 8,000 people recently participated in a demonstration and dozens have been booked or arrested by the police.
“We are saving Mollem’s forests not only for their beauty, but also for the survival of life in Goa,” said artist Svabhu Kohli, who started the My Mollem campaign, which includes artists, lawyers, researchers, biologists and local residents. brought communities together to raise awareness. through art and action of the impact the projects can have on Mollem.
‘They say they are doing this to help the people of Goa. But everyone in Goa knows that Mollum has a special magic, so how can cutting down irreplaceable forests be beneficial? And if it is for us, why have we never been consulted? “
Over the past three years, Goa’s main port, Mormugao Port Trust in the north of the state, has expanded to become a hub for imported coal. Since 2018, two of India’s largest coal importers, Adani and JSW, have set up multiple terminals in the port.
In 2020, the Ministry of the Environment granted permission for a third coal terminal and deep water dredging works for large coal ships. The port currently processes 12 million tons of coal, but importers hope to increase that to 51 million tons by 2035.
Campaigners in Goa have linked coal imports to a reported increase in air pollution, lung diseases and more recently a spike in Covid-19 deaths in villages near where the coal is unloaded and transported.
The coal entering Goa is not even used in the state, but is transported across the border to steel and power plants in neighboring Karnataka and Maharashtra.
But, as emphasized in the master plan, in order for this expansion plan to be viable in the long term, the old single-line railway and the winding road from Goa, both of which bisected Mollum to get to neighboring states, would have to be widened to cope. provide the heavy trucks with coal and frequent freight trains needed to transport the coal across the border. “This is the most important initiative and lifeline for future port operations,” stated the master plan for the doubling of tracks.
The railroad expansion was the first of three controversial projects to receive the stamp of approval in December 2019 from the National Board for Wildlife (NBW), which comes under the Department of the Environment. The project, cutting deep tunnels into the reserve and turning 1.8 million tons of land was justified to meet future customer demand. But locals say the line is rarely busy.
The former head of the Goa Forest Department, Richard D’Souza, had originally refused to approve the railway project in 2013 because it was unnecessarily and unfairly destructive to Mollem’s fragile biodiversity.
Mollum, Goa map
“I did not think it appropriate for the railroad to be doubled in the reserve because I saw all these animals there with my own eyes, the black panther, bats, gaur and tigers, and a biodiversity that cannot be found anywhere else”, said D’Souza. “It was also unnecessary because there weren’t many passengers on that line.”
The government has had an environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out for the project. However, it was carried out by an academic who is also a member of the NBW, who later approved the railway project in December 2019. “You can see this is a complete conflict of interest,” said Alvares.
“The doubling of the railway will be a disaster, there is no doubt about that,” added D’Souza. “The whole sanctuary is very steep and you will have to cut deep into the land and a lot of trees will have to be felled. The famous Dudhsagar waterfall is located next to the tracks and will no doubt be damaged during the works. They have to leave it as it is; that will save the sanctuary, that will save nature, biodiversity, everything. “
The other two projects affecting Mollem – the road extension to a dual carriageway and the first stages of a new power line – were approved by the NBW in April.
The green lighting of the projects by the central government caused outrage in Goa, with many unaware that they were even in the pipeline because of what Nandini Velho, a Goa wildlife biologist, described as “a complete lack of information and transparency”.
Attorney Sreeja Chakraborty has taken legal challenge against the highway project because of what she called “clear discrepancies in the filing.” She emphasized that the EIA for the motorway specified that only one bird species had been found in Mollem. “A bird, throughout the 200 square kilometers of a nature reserve, when anyone walking through Mollem will see multiple species, including Goa’s national bird, the yellow-throated bulbul. This is just absurd and disgusting. But if you don’t include what’s there, no one will know what’s been lost, ”she said.
“They cannot defend the road expansion based on traffic data, it is not standing,” Chakraborty said. “It is part of a multiple attack on Goa to support the expansion of the coal port and every step we have discovered along the way has not followed the correct procedure.”
The state and central government justify the new power line, which will build six 22-meter pylons through Mollem, as needed to bring electricity to remote areas of Goa, saying less than 0.25 acres of land is needed. The project has already begun and under cover of the April cut, 20,000 trees were cut down on the edge of the reserve to make way for the substation.
Activists say the power line serves the interests of coal imports, boosting power to the port and powering train engines to electric so they can run faster, more frequently and more efficiently for future coal freight. “There is no document linking the transmission line to the railway, but the situation on the ground is very clear,” Chakraborty claimed.
Subhash Chandra, the state government’s chief chief conservator of forests, said the new causeway would halve the amount of time it took to drive through the reserve. “We are taking all necessary measures to ensure minimal conflict with nature and to ensure minimal damage to forests,” he said, emphasizing that a series of animal crossings, underpasses and gates would be installed around the road and rail. to avoid collisions. However, environmentalists were devastating about this. “This is a forest, not a circus,” said Alvares. “Wild animals will not follow signs to safely cross a road.”
Chandra defended all three projects, saying, “This is to meet human, commercial and business needs. India is a developing country and our role in forest management is to strike a balance between conservation and development needs. The environment is not a static thing, nature has an incredible power to adapt and bounce back, and the status quo cannot last forever, Goa must progress. “
Goa’s BJP Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, has repeatedly denied that any of these projects are intended to increase coal transport capacity, describing them as a “nation-building exercise” without “no threat to Mollem.” In November, he promised to cut coal imports to Mormugao Port Trust by 50% and said he had asked for the center’s assurance that Goa would not become a coal hub. The Adani Group has denied any role in the projects that concern Mollem.
Meanwhile, the protests and Save Mollem campaigns continue unabated in Goa’s villages and towns, inspiring a new generation of young Goans who are confronting politicians and government officials for answers.
John Countinho, an environmental activist recently booked by police for his involvement in the protests, said he feared that if the projects go ahead it would secure Goa as a coal corridor for years to come – making it unlikely that they will move from coal to renewable energy sources. because they want a return on their investment in coal infrastructure. “
Kohli, the artist and activist, said the future of Goa’s ecology is “hanging by a thread”. “Goa had a beautiful ecologically diverse coast and through greed and a lack of vision we lost so much of our diversity,” he said. “We can’t let Mollum do the same.”