Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said, viewing the landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad a warning signal and an ‘eye opener’ for a place like Goa and the minister had given guidelines to various departments that ecologically vulnarable areas that are prone to such disasters “should bept intact” and should not be disturbed
“We cannot compromise on their stability,” Sawant said during a discussion in the Assembly on Thursday on “excessive development” in eco-sensitive areas. “A system will be developed to report and monitor hill cutting in the state.”
The chief minister was speaking at a discussion over a calling attention motion that Goa’s Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Revolutionary Goans Party MLA Viresh Borkar and BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar had moved. The motion flags concerns that “unplanned and excessive development” in ecologically sensitive areas in Goa, including Dharbandora in the Western Ghats, could lead to landslides similar to the one at Wayanad.
Citing an earlier study on landslides, Sawant said: “We have identified four landslide hot-spots in Goa located in high altitudes in north-eastern and eastern part of state and in low lying areas of western and south-western parts. The major cause of landslides in Goa are found to be extreme rainfall events, slope instability and geological factors. The analysis of the possible cause for the landslides showed that rainfall-triggered landslides are the most frequent.”
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AAP MLA Venzy Viegas claimed hill cutting was rampant in several parts of the state. “Do we have any checks and balances especially if hill cutting permissions are given in an illegal manner? How do we mitigate landslides? Are we willing to stop building hotels and houses by cutting hills? Does the government have a plan?”
Responding to the calling attention, state Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate said that according to information from the Town and Country Planning Department, “no development is otherwise permitted in ecologically sensitive areas such as hilly regions having slopes more than 25 percent, low lying paddy fields, khazan lands, forest lands, mangroves”.
“Whenever any infrastructure development requires to be taken up through these areas, the same has to be taken up only after obtaining necessary approvals from concerned authorities, which are capable of assessing the pros and cons,” he said.
