Goa govt urges Centre to exclude 40 villages from list of eco-sensitive areas

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the state government wants a central committee to exclude 40 villages from the list of eco-sensitive areas in Western Ghats of the coastal state.

Talking to reporters, Sawant said he has been following up the issue of eco-sensitive areas in Goa since 2019 with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The state government has demanded that 40 out of the 99 villages, identified by the central government's committee on the Western Ghats, be excluded from the list, he said.

“If they want, they can add 10 more villages (currently not identified in the list) in the eco-sensitive areas, so that the total villages will be 69,” the CM said.

The chief minister on Monday met a team of the central ministry's committee led by retired IFS officer Sanjay Kumar. The team was in Goa to meet stakeholders from the Western Ghats area of the state.

The team held hearings in Quepem and Sattari talukas.

Sawant said the notification of villages as eco-sensitive areas prohibits only the "red industry" and certain commercial activities within them. People can continue their daily activities including construction of houses in these villages, he added.

In July 2022, the Union ministry issued a draft notification proposing that 99 Goan villages spread over 1,461 square kilometres be declared as eco-sensitive areas.

The Kasturirangan Committee on the Western Ghats had identified 99 Goan villages as eco-sensitive areas.

Mhadei, Netravali, Cotigao, Bhagwan Mahavir and Bondla wildlife sanctuaries had been included in the eco-sensitive zones identified in the panel's report.