Sand Mining Menace Back Again

Confirmed reports has just come in about massive illegal sand mining in Mandovi river in Goa at night near Divar island. We are not sure as to which politicians and police officers are involved in the sandy shady deals.

Sand mining is damaging healthy river fishing environment. Nearly 10 trucks loads of sand is stocked as of now at Chorao Mandovi river bank. Sand is extracted in cannoes manually with outboard motors as navigation enforcers.

The Divar Manifesto

On 24 September 2024 several hundred people from Divar island submitted petition to the Goltim-Navelim Sarpanch to hold urgent extraordinary Gram Sabha to discussion several issues that calls of a seat at the table.

Petition was also served on Director of Panchayat as well as Tiswadi Block Development Officer (BDO). BDO responded quickly the next day on 25th September 2024 and directed Navelim-Goltim Panchayat to act under section 5 of Goa Panchayat Raj Act 1994.

Sarpanch of Goltim-Navelim Panchayat however has got Secretary Tukaram J. Naik to address the letter to the residents of Goltim-Navelim Panchayat that single issue of seminal importance was already addressed by the extraordinary Gram sabha called by Panchayat on 29th September 2024 even before villagers submitted the letter.

Even though single issue was addressed at the Gram Sabha involving 20 swiss cottages eco-tourism project near the Our Lady of Piety Church in land aquired from the communidade half a century ago the other 14 issues did not find the space to deliberate, discuss and decide upon at that Gram Sabha. They are therefore lingering as an open wounds of Divar Island and Goltim- Navelim Panchayat is totally responsible for this tragedy.

Indeed it is tragic case where in those who were elected to serve public are bossing over under delusion that they are masters. Ring leader of this autocratic gang is none other than Goltim-Navelim Sarpanch who is indulging in disrespecting Public requests thereby preventing empowered and informed development of Divar Island.

As a protest against the Goltim-Navelim Panchayat decision not to call for extraordinary Gram Sabha dealing with Village issue we share here all the 15 issues with you so that they are not pushed under the carpet by the Panchayat but remain alive in public memory to inflame daring yet wise actions as Divar Manifesto:

1. Diwar being declared as a Tourism Village by the Goa Tourism Department, under the implementation of “Tourist Villages Development Scheme 2021”  to be rejected outright .

2. Housing Projects in our Village to be strictly dealt with considering the carrying capacity of our Village.

3. Pilot Project for Mangrove Restoration in our Village on cultivable Khazan lands.

4. Eco Tourism Project by Goa Tourism Department in their property next to the Our Lady of Piety Church.

5. Oppose the construction of bridge linking Divar Island to Vanxim Island as announced by Hon’ble Chief Minister at the recent Bonderam festival.

6. Enforcement of the outer bunds of Goltim and Navelim by planting mangroves along the river banks to be taken up on war footing by utilizing the services of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority so as to prevent breaches in bunds.

7. The Water Sports activities approved by the Goa Tourism Department along our Village boundary in the river Mandovi

8. Demolition of illegal construction of MRF shed in Panchayat property without leaving the mandatory setback in the vicinity of Lord Redeemer’s Chapel. 

9. Filing of FIR against unknown persons for the unauthorized and rampant land filling taking place with construction debris specially along road side with the Panchayat authorities remaining silent spectators.  The land be restored to its original.

10. Inundation of Khazan lands in Goltim-Navelim by saline water.

11. Progress Report Card alongwith the list of Committee Members of various Village Development Committees of the Panchayat appointed for the betterment of our Village be placed before the Gram Sabha for discussion.

12. The sorry state of Public Utilities in our Village including regulated Public water supply, frequent Electricity failures, Speed Breakers and erection of Traffic Sign Boards, frequent Ferry breakdowns, non-availability Doctor during nights and other essential public utilities.

13. Mandatory registration of Migrant population residing in our village in rental premises.

14. Review of completed/ongoing projects specially those undertaken by outsiders and approved by TCP Department as the functioning of the TCP Department itself is under scanner.

15. Action on illegal encroachment seen on land owned by this Panchayat on Ribandar side next to the Divar-Ribandar ferry jetty.

Each of the above points are very important and deserve place on the agenda of Gram Sabha. Avoiding to hold Gram Sabha disrespecting hundreds of signatories indicate ulterior motives of the Sarpanch and other members supporting him including those from RSS.

People of Divar must take charge of the destiny of our beautiful island and not allow Mario Pinto and his minions to take islanders hostages with throttled voices. They must note that the day people will rise up their status will be powerless. Time to assert is now! Stranglehold of the nasty ones deserves to be shattered asunder now! We have nothing to lose except our misery and years! How long single Pinto to dominate Divar? How long he is to insult the islanders?

Vanxim bridge will uproot and expel locals

Tomas Amansio Rodrigues made some bold statements about Vanxim Island and politicians' attempt to connect it via bridge in Herald on 22nd September 2024 in his article titled "Triple blows threatens Island of Divar".

https://epaper.heraldgoa.in/article/oHeraldo?OrgId=229388a4b4d&eid=1&imageview=0&standalone=1&device=desktop

We take up his important observations for reflections in some detail - sentence by sentence - from 16 sentences about Vanxim with gratitude to Tomas AmansioRodrigues.

1. "Announcement by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on 24 August 2024 during harvest festival in Divar to construct bridge connecting Divar island to Vanxim Island." This announcement is the first threat to Divar Island and foremost threat to Vanxim Island as well threatening the very identity of the two islands in the first place.

2. "Chief Minister's statement coming at a cultural festival surprised many as the long term residents of Divar." In fact the utterances from Chief Minister were much more than surprise. They were shocking indeed. The harvest festival of Bonderam got coup in its very essence from being festival of harvest that was observed by local communidade till some decades ago to festival of real estate (Rajdeep builders and Vianaar) and other corporate ( Coca cola) bonanza. How did this transition happened? Who are the people at the leadership position of PYA allowed such a massive real estate and corporate takeover of Divar's Bonderam?

3. "Divadkars have always opposed a bridge." This is indeed significant collective decision of Divar people that has ensured safety of Divar from rapid and voracious real estate predators. Divadkars deserve appreciation from one and all.

4. "It is only few new residents of Divar that are in favour of bridge." Most of these residents are from different parts of India, accustomed to lifestyle that is different, and often hostile to ethos of Divar Island. They can settle in Divar thanks to the historical annexure of Goa through conquest by India.

5. "Besides, there has never been any demand for bridge from Vanxim, a small island connected to Divar via ferry." This is indeed so. There has never been a demand for bridge from Vanxim. The first time the idea of bridge got seeded in 2010 after Goa Archbishop's office twin sale deeds of February 11, 2006  involving paddy fields of Vanxim to Mahendra Gaunekar and his wife Sonali Gaunekar surfaced on the media. In August 2015 Mahendra Gaunekar sold off same Paddy fields to Ozone Leisure Private Limited for over 15 crore rupees. Few people from Vanxim got deceived then and were used as mouthpiece calling for the bridge connecting Vanxim. Many have realized their copirate hijacking. In fact corporate records reveals bridge as one of the primary requirements (other requirement being construction of retaining wall around entire Vanxim island) to see through realization of installation of five star hotel, luxury villas, helipad, Golf Course and Marina in the middle of Mandovi river inside the paddy fields: unusual harvest plans!

6. "Vanxim has about dozen houses that are inhabited through the year." Yes, slightly more than a dozen to be precise. People of Vanxim gradually moved away from Vanxim to settle all over Goa, India and even beyond.

7. "Other houses remain close most of the year, with people coming there only on holidays." Yes, people visit Vanxim in the month of April-May-June, few in December too.

8. "If one conducts cost-benefit analysis of a bridge to this island, then surely cost will outweigh the benefits." Yes, Ferry services serves well to the island. Avoiding direct road connectivity had protected Vanxim from real estate invasion. Bridge construction will pave way to swallowing of Vanxim Island by corporate greed. Chopdem-Siolim bridge has facilitated tourism invasion of coastal coastal Pernem at unprecedented scale to a level that local people are subjected to acute distress.

9. "I am not merely referring to financial costs here but also to environmental costs." In addition to financial and environmental costs there are also social costs that are never taken into account but very important. One can have peaceful sleep in Vanxim without any vehicular disturbances. Only disturbances in awful odors at Amboi ferry junction due to release of sewage into Mandovi river through underground pipeline from hotel closeby to Ferry ramp.

10. "A bridge cannot be erected without approach roads at either ends." Yes, this is valid poin raised. Huge amount of land on both the islands will have to utilized for approach road to erect the bridge. This is simply bad idea.

11. "Vanxim is so small an island, that one wonders where the approach road will be built."  Yes, Vanxim as island doesn't have sufficient land for such suicidal projects.

12. "Similarly on Divar end, where will approach road begin?" Yes, Divar or Malar stands to loose its land.

13. "How much land will be lost to this, and how many hills be be cut to create the approach roads?" Yes, this is good dimension brought into debate. Mining has ready slashed so many hills of Goa already. Mulgao, Advalpal, Sirgao, Bicholim are already pointers in this direction.

14. "The benefits of such a bridge, if any,  will be only be available to corporates who have for long eye on Vanxim to develop it for tourism purposes." This correct. Bridge is primarily motivation from corporates as they already have most of Vanxim geography under their fraudulent control.

15. "This has been opposed in the past and will be opposed in the future." Yes, it continues to be opposed.

16. "It is obvious to us islanders that the bridge to Vanxim is only to facilitate luxury tourism and 11 households will be displaced once bridge comes up." Yes, attempts for far towards displacements are opposed and opposition continues.

Additionally it must be acknowledged that political leadership including Cumbharjua MLA and Goa Chief Minister are taking up the Vanxim bridge cause is clear indication that their nexus with corporates is firm. Corporate interest is masked and dark faces behind the mask is traceable rather easily.

Divar villagers reject Mangrove plantation project in Khazans

United Divarkars foiled bid to transform Khazan land under Pilot Project on Mangrove restoration
The villagers of Divar and in a special way the farming community were triggered by the Notice of Site Inspection issued by the Department of Environment & Climate Change (DE&CC), Government of Goa for August 28, 2024. The parties who were served the notice included the FORREST (Forest Regeneration & amp; Environmental Sustainability Trust), a Pune based NGO, The Secretary of Village Panchayat, Navelim, Tiswadi, The Administrator of Communidades, Central Zone, Panaji, The Executive Engineer, Water Resources Department (WRD), Mangroves Society of India, Goa Chapter, The Member-Secretary, Goa Biodiversity Board, Dr. Sushant Naik, Expert Member GCZMA, Margao, Attorney of Communidade of Malar, Divar and Miss Bhargavi Kelkar and Mr. Sakhil Naik of DE&CC.

The interested villagers gathered momentum through social media at a short notice of less than 24 hours. Farmers residing across the island who has agricultural land
holdings in Divar also made their presence felt.

When questions were posed to the officials of DE&CC during the site inspection conducted recently as to why the Secretary of Navelim
Panchayat was intimated and not the Sarpanch, so also the Attorney of Malar Communidade who has no jurisdiction in Navelim, and why the land owners were kept in the dark about this project, no answers were forthcoming from DE&CC.

The DE&CC also informed the villagers that the FORREST applied to their department to take up the Pilot Project for Mangrove restoration. When further questioned whether they have accepted their proposal, a member of the FORREST replied that it is
only in the nascent stage and that nothing has been approved as yet.

The villagers further grilled the inspection party about their intent to Mangrove restoration instead of getting rid of the menace of mangroves that is threatening their fertile Khazan lands thereby depriving them of bringing their agricultural lands under cultivation. Khazan land are reclaimed lands from the river for agriculture purposes several centuries ago with specialized community skills and collective expertise.

The villagers brought to the notice of the inspection party that no land in the whole of Divar is earmarked for Mangroves as can be verified from the old Survey Plans of the respective Communidades from the island and that mangroves existed only along river banks along the outer boundary of the island which acted as enforcement for the protection of bunds from soil erosion and prevent breaches in bunds. The mangroves that we see in the fields today is the fallout of ignorance, mismanagement and negligence on the part of the concerned Government agencies.

The FORREST officials tried to hoodwink the villagers that the land proposed by them for Mangrove restoration in actuality is across the road and not the Survey Numbers as mentioned in the Notice of Site Inspection. One of the farmer retorted saying even those lands are coming under khazan.

The Hon’ble MLA, Mr. Rajesh Faldessai who rushed to the site informed the inspection party not to interfere with the Khazan lands of Divar in the future and further assured the villagers that he would seek an appointment with the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister alongwith the villagers for a lasting solution towards the restoration of the Khazan lands of Divar.

Project proposal submitted to the Department of Environment, Government of Goa has pictures of paddy fields that were dried up under the directions of Goa Bench of Bombay High Court as a part of reclamation process for paddy cultivation near Divar-Old Goa Ferry crossings. While proposed Pilot Project for Mangrove cultivation are paddy fields near Divar-Ribandar ferry point. In both the instances paddy fields that are eyed for take over of transition from Paddy fields to Mangroves with community participation. Irony of the entire FORREST project is that it has planned without people thereby making mockery of premises of local people's participation proposed in the project.

The experience of this experiment has been bitter and disappointing precisely because they haven't cared to learn ecological history of Divar Island harvesting conflict.

It is indeed great that awakening has set on the island of Divar. We hope that the torch of awakening will spread to neighboring island of Vanxim and in Malar wherein few people are determined to destroy Vanxim by allowing themselves to be used as mouthpiece for bridge to Vanxim. It's first step to uproot houses in Vanxim by corporate predators like Ozone group. May people in Malar and Vanxim be inspired by heroic defence of paddy fields from the clutches of FORREST.