By Rithwik Sundar
Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny’s latest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Spanish for “I should have taken more photos”), has taken the charts by storm. Raw, emotional, and unapologetic, the album is a love letter to the pro-independence movement of Puerto Rico, capturing the heartbreak of a people seeing their land slipping away. The album lays bare the reality of gentrification choking the island’s culture and identity, while calling out the tide of uninformed mass tourism that’s contributing to the erasure of Puerto Rico’s native people and natural heritage. In a similar vein, communities across the world are confronting the same forces of displacement and exploitation. And here in India, another spirited group of people – Goans from the villages of Loliem and the neighbouring Poingunin – who hold their culture and roots dear, are pushing back on large-scale infrastructure projects invading their natural resources and land.
Since 2011, starting with the Gadgil Report, also known as the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report, the demarcation of Eco Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in the Western Ghats has been at the centre of environmental and political debates involving the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. The ESA notification, which has been contested by various interest groups since 2013 and remains in the drafting stage, seeks to recognise a large portion of the Western Ghats for their ecological importance, restricting large-scale construction, mining, and industrial development in these areas. However, bureaucratic hurdles have been numerous, with stakeholder states citing concerns over local livelihoods, economic activities, and the potential impacts on development projects. As a result, the ESA notification has become marked by competing interests, making it difficult to find a middle ground between conservation and developmental pressures.
Laterite plateaus are unique ecosystems providing vital ecological services and harbouring endemic biodiversity in the Western Ghats. They are rapidly disappearing because of unchecked development. Photo: Shivayogi Kanthi/Sanctuary Photolibrary.
Despite six rounds of drafting and negotiations on environmental integrity, stakeholder states have continued to resist, calling for fewer areas to be included in the ESA, citing concerns over the economic and developmental impact of the proposed restrictions. Aleixo Sequeira, Goa’s Environment Minister, told the press, “Our aim is to exclude as many villages as possible from the draft ESA notification.” This sentiment was also echoed by Goa’s Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, several months earlier. In light of these discussions and the potential removal of villages from the ESA draft, the people of Loliem and Poingunim have taken the step of directly requesting the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to ensure their inclusion in the upcoming Eco Sensitive Areas notification.
The Goa state government has argued for the removal of 21 villages from the draft ESA notification, out of a proposed 108. The Chief Minister highlighted that the state relies on some of these villages for minor minerals, and if they are designated under ESA, the state would have to source them from outside. While included in the draft, the villages of Loliem and Poingunim are pushing against the tide with their petition to ensure their inclusion in the ESA. They are calling for even stricter enforcement, citing the damage done to their rich habitats by luxury tourism, infrastructure development, and real estate. They stress that they have witnessed firsthand how excessive tourism has wreaked havoc on their beloved Goan villages.
Among the many looming threats to Loliem is a proposed Film City by the Entertainment Society of Goa, which would require 250 ha. of land. Loliem’s Comunidade, a traditional system of communal land ownership and governance controlled by the village elite dating back to the Portuguese colonial era, has offered to lease 250 hectares of land for 99 years for the Film City project. However, the Loliem village Gram Sabha has passed a resolution opposing the grant for the Film City, ensuring that the Loliem Gram Panchayat will take all necessary steps to conserve the Bhagwati Plateau. Unfortunately, some provisions allow for the override of the Panchayat’s decision, and the Town and Country Planning Department will ultimately have a say in the matter, with strong reasons to believe it will favour the Comunidade’s decision. As a result, the villagers have turned to the ESA notification in an effort to safeguard Loliem’s natural resources.
The villagers recognise the vital ecological services provided by the Bhagwati Plateau, which spans 40,000 sq. m., and have united in their efforts to have it officially recognised under the ESA. Loliem is unique because of its layered landscape – at the top, the plateau absorbs water, followed by orchards and forests on the slopes, then land, and rivers at sea level. The plateau is capped with laterite, an important feature in the region’s landscape, and one that is rapidly disappearing because of unchecked development. Laterite formations are crucial as water-bearing structures, capturing rainwater and allowing it to filter through the surface, replenishing groundwater in wells on the hillsides. While the draft ESA notification acknowledges laterite plateaus as part of the Western Ghats’ unique ecosystems, they still lack attention from the state government. These plateaus also serve as critical microhabitats, supporting a diverse range of biodiversity.
Given vehement opposition from states, lobbying by interest groups, bureaucratic hurdles, and six iterations of a draft notification later, recognition for the fragile ecosystems of the Western Ghats is yet to materialise. Meanwhile, human encroachment continues to erode the margins of the pristine Western Ghats, and deforestation proceeds unabated. The recent landslides in Wayanad, Kerala should have served as a clear warning of the dangers of ignoring science and pursuing reckless human expansion in the name of development. While governments and self-interested groups lobby to dilute and manipulate conservation efforts, the people of these two Goan villages are fighting for their future – and in doing so, setting an example for everyone.
