If 2020 wasn’t bad enough already, here’s some more bad news. This World Environment Day we want to draw your attention to a disaster in the making in Goa. Our beloved Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park are being robbed in broad daylight. Virtual clearances have been granted to forest threatening projects.
Now, what makes the sanctuary and park special?
Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary is the largest wildlife preserve in Goa spanning over 240 sq. km and encompasses the 107 sq. km area of the Mollem National Park. They’re a part of the Western Ghats which, hold your breath, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and older than the more popular sidekick, the Himalayas. It is home to several animals, 722 species of flowering plants, 128 species of plants, 238 species of birds and many more. Besides the stellar bio-diversity, it is also home to the spellbinding Dudhsagar Waterfalls, Devils Canyon and the centuries-old Tambdi Surla temple.
So what’s going on in this blessed land? Much to the dismay of people, the following projects have been approved:
Four-laning of highway
Double tracking of the railway line from Castle-rock in Karnataka to Collem in Goa
Laying of a line-in lineout (LILO) transmission line
Images Source: ActForGoa
Apart from the glaring ignorance towards the environment, they’re also bypassing due diligence by giving virtual clearances during the lockdown, without physically inspecting the area.
“The fragmentation of habitat is very likely to create more human-animal conflict as well as soil being eroded from the hill-cutting or land-filling during the projects being deposited in the rivers and streams downstream, thus affecting aquatic life there,” said Omkar Dharwadkar of the Foundation for Environment Research and Conservation (Source: The Hindu)
Biking in the Ghats – March’19
We have great memories of biking in Mollem and taking solace in nature. If you have ever felt close to the sanctuary or the national park or nature in general, please take some time out to read up on this pressing issue and talk about it on social media and to the people around you.
Join the Petition: http://chng.it/WSpHM6VMbb
Follow these hashtags on Instagram: MyMollem MagicalMollem VirtualWipeout
Sources: The Hindu, TOI, Mumbai Mirror, GTDC
