An ecological hotspot hots up

The four together became the single largest protected corridor of the Ghats, home to some rare and endangered species of flora and fauna. Equally or more important, the Ghats8217; forest are the fountainhead for the Madovi and Zuari, Goa8217;s life-giving rivers. In fact, most of the rivers of peninsular India emanate from the Western Ghats corridor. Legal protection meant ecological insurance, at least to the Goa section of the Ghats.

That was June 3, 1999; environmentalists marked it as a golden day in their calendars. It paved the way, they thought, for similarly protecting the Ghats in others states as well, most notably Karnataka and Kerala that lie below and are home to a large and significant section of the Ghats. For instance, Anshi National Park that lies east of Cotigao and the Dandeli wildlife sanctuary in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. The Dandeli forest region has a route where regular movements of elephants havebeen recorded.

8220;The huge sections of unprotected forest means the Ghats are under threat. They have to be protected in some way,8221; says Tejal Dhulla, commercial artist by training, environmentalist by choice and a member of the Mumbai group. With Madei and Netravali as the precedents, the group comprising wildlife enthusiasts and members of the Bombay Natural History Society BNHS, were working on data and strategy to get Karnataka forest officials interested in the Goa model of protecting the Ghats. Until last week that is.

Since then, they have been busy trying to counter politicians and commercial interest groups from undoing the Goa model itself. The notification to create the two new sanctuaries was issued by the governor, Lt.General JFR Jacob retd, a Param Vishishta Sewa medal awardee with a keen interest in ecology. Jacob timed it cleverly when Goa was brought under President8217;s rule weeks before the assembly election in June. The new Congress government, under chief minister Luizinho Faleiro,had different ideas about the importance of the Western Ghats.

The Faleiro government has begun to echo a cross-section of arguments to either scrap the notification to denotify the newly created sanctuaries or to severely curtail the area covered by them. 8220;If the forest department cannot take care of the existing two sanctuaries, how will they manage the others,8221; Faleiro reportedly asked the states8217; legislators recently. His government plans to hear objections to the new sanctuaries in the next few weeks.

Popularly elected governments certainly need to listen to all sides in a dispute, but many fear that the powerful mining lobbies and cashew growers caucuses may be behind the recent noises against the Goa model; and worse, Faleiro may just be playing into their hands. The area declared as Netravali sanctuary has mining concessions issued, while Madei sanctuary area has been prospected for future mining. It8217;s highly possible that these lobbies have mobilised a few ordinary people to speak against thesanctuaries, say Goa-based environmentalists.

The state8217;s settlement officers appointed by the Faleiro government will listen to the people8217;s grievances mainly that a handful of villages and cultivated land are enclosed in the newly-created sanctuaries. The forest department has already agreed to releasing the few square kilometres from the notified area, if the people8217;s legal rights over land are established. Says Richard D8217;Souza, conservator of forests,8220;There were no households in what8217;s now Netravali sanctuary, there were three small villages in what8217;s now the Madei sanctuary but these villages are not in the protected zone. We made sure that people were not disturbed and if livelihood is involved, we will consider these cases now, but denotification is not the answer.8221;Officials like D8217;Souza believe that the Goa model, if implemented in other Western Ghats states, will set a new trend in protecting the Ghats. Not merely through official circulars but with the help of environmentalists and wildlifeenthusiasts who generate the data and debate for such decisions.

The genesis of the Goa model lay in the regular trekking trips organised by the Mumbai-based group of youngsters. 8220;At one stage, we even thought of buying some land, at least in Karnataka, to protect it,8221; says Visheshwar Madhav, chemical engineer who with Durgesh Kasbekar approached Governor Jacob in March. They hope that their efforts will not be overturned at the altar of commercial interests. The Goa model must live on. What8217;s more, it must be replicated in other states.