Even in our villages, we have an over-illumination problem. At Sonarbhat (Saligao, where I live), some roads have been flooded with halogen. Others are dark, and some weeks back we've been facing daily half-hour powercuts. Talk of priorities!
This is what Chryselle D'Silva wrote on Facebook: QUOTE Spending St. Xavier's Feast fighting with law and order (!) to not let an electric high-mast with stadium-type lights be erected right outside our house. This (bright lights), according to our neighbours will eradicate the visibility of prostitutes, beggars, vagrants and the drunks who stumble by old Panjim after midnight. Yeah, right. If only bright light were the solution to all our problems... Why can't they just repair the broken streetlights instead? Part 2 of the 'fight' happens this afternoon when our local MLA will come to assess the situation. God help him (and us)... ...So we had a 'meeting' with Manohar Parrikar and local residents at the site. Parrikar said, " I'll make sure the light doesn't come into your house." And that should be the end of our objections, according to him. When I asked him the logic behind having such an expensive system in place when just repairing or installing a few more streelights would be sufficient to illuminate the place, he said, "I don't understand why you should object to other people having light." !!! Trying to explain the effects of over-illumination (including increased stress, increased anxiety, insomnia, the environmental effects on birds and bats, damage to nocturnal ecosystems - which have a cascading effect on all of us) to this so-called IIT graduate was pointless. "I'll come to your house one day to explain this," he said. We told him we had the time right then to listen to the explanation, but he was too busy making chit-chat with the hangers on. END QUOTE -- FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 f...@goa-india.org Saligao Goa IN http://fn.goa-india.org Skype: fredericknoronha --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------