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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Relentless mining leaves Goa villages high and dry by Viju B


As the famous sun-soaked Calangute beach gets decked up for yet another Christmas and New year parties, villagers of Shirgao situated a few kilometres away try to find new ways to escape the halo of toxic red dust that enter their drawing rooms every day. 

Shirgao has three mines — Chougules, Bandekar, Dempo — operating in and around the three-square-kilometre village. In the last five years, the village has turned from a fertile land to a waste land, with all the wells going dry and paddy fields turning toxic. Hundreds of dumpers carrying mud though these leafy bylanes spew red dust and toxic particulate matter into the atmosphere. 

This is the untold story of Goa beyond the glitz and sandy beaches of Goa, as village after village, taluka after taluka in the plateaus and valleys along the Western Ghats have been ecologically ruined due to indiscriminate mining. 

Data from the Goa forest department show that out of the total number 355 mining leases, 110 mines are operational. Ninety of these mining leases are given in the core forest area. What is most worrying is that public hearing for 169 projects have already been completed and once the government of Goa announces a state mining policy early next year the moratorium for fresh mining leases will be lifted. 

"Out of the 10 talukas, mining is happening in nine. In most cases the EIA reports have been fabricated and public hearings is just a sham," says Bicholim-based environmental activist Ramesh Gavas. The local politicians play an active role in approving and operating the mines. "They approach the land owners who have mining leases and help them in approving the leases and then operate the mines themselves," Gavas said.