***********************************************************************
* G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
***********************************************************************
T H I S S P A C E C A N B E Y O U R S
Advertise your Product(s) and Service(s) on Goanet
& S u p p o r t G o a n e t o p e r a t i o n s
F o r d e t a i l s c o n t a c t : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***********************************************************************
from www.guardian.co.uk
Soul owners
Goa's beaches are a magnet for hordes of Brits, but now the
state's 'relaxed' residents are fighting back against vast
development
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday February 7, 2007
The Guardian
There is a restaurant on the beachfront offering a menu that
includes a roast dinner complete with yorkshire pudding,
"Colemen's" mustard, "House Reddish Sauce", boiled vegetables
and Oxo gravy. Just round the corner, past the shop selling the
Daily Express, there is bingo on offer, and at many of the bars
there is a regular diet of English Premiership football to cater
to the many holidaymakers in football club replica shirts.
This is Baga in Goa, one of the fastest-growing tourist resorts
patronised by British and European holidaymakers. Thirty years
ago, Goa was still a relatively languid backwater popular with
Indian tourists and a smattering of hippies who decamped from
Kathmandu for the winter months. But those days are long gone as
tourism (in the shape of European ravers and package holidayers)
and domestic development have boomed and Goa has attracted
investment from all over India and across the world. But how
much more can Goa take?
Potential crisis
This is the question that Goans have been asking over the last
few weeks as the tiny state and former Portuguese colony, which
became a part of an independent India in 1961, has been facing
one of its potentially greatest environmental crises.
Last year, the state government proposed a highly controversial
scheme, Plan 2011, which would have led to a vast increase in
the area of developed land and changed the face of Goa for ever,
turning some of its unspoiled areas into "concrete jungles", as
opponents of the scheme saw it, and allowing property
speculators and developers to run riot in previously protected
areas of the state. Virgin forests and mangrove areas were to be
built on, and orchards given over to industrial use. There were
to be new towns, a "leisure city", and entertainment complexes.
Great news for property speculators and their political patrons,
but a disaster for long-suffering locals and the environment,
which includes a rich variety of birds in protected areas.
The Goans, a famously relaxed community, got organised once the
enormity of the threat was recognised. People were left under no
illusion as to what might happen and as to who were the real
beneficiaries of the changes.
Noel Caldeira, of the Save Goa Campaign, warned that "while Goa
sleeps, the ground is being taken out from under our feet".
Oscar Rebello, convenor of the campaign, warned: "Goa today is
at the crossroads of her very existence. Her soul, her identity
and her beauty are being mercilessly sold off - all for the
petty gains of a petty few."
Even the campaigners were surprised by the support they
received. Thousands attended mass meetings when only hundreds,
if that, had been expected. Despite the crescendo of public
opposition, few believed that the campaign would prevail when so
much money was at stake. Then, astonishingly, the state
government relented spectacularly on January 18, agreeing - to
the delight and surprise of many campaigners - to scrap the
plan.
It was a rare and remarkable victory, which demonstrated that,
even with the odds stacked against it, a well-organised
environmental campaign that has been able to mobilise a large
cross-section of people can still succeed in a democracy. A key
factor in the decision was the realisation that the local
governing party, Congress, faced almost certain defeat at the
forthcoming state elections if it continued with the deeply
unpopular carve-up.
Not that this is the end of the road for would-be developers and
their political chums trying to make as much out of Goa's
desirability as possible. There will be other plans. The
campaigners are not taking anything for granted and know that
despite the official cancellation of the plan there will be
attempts to push through illegal development. Sanjeev Trivedi of
the Save Goa Campaign says: "While the protests go on, the
violators are going ahead full steam with support and connivance
of the law enforcers - bureaucrats and the police. The
volunteers of the campaign are working against these forces,
pointing out the violations and trying to get stay orders from
the government offices."
Goans are also increasingly concerned about the unchecked nature
of the tourism industry. In a front page story in the local
Navhind Times last month, it was reported that "present greed
could be killing the goose that lays the golden egg in Goa's
tourism". The story went on to report how the beach between
Calangute and Baga is now "a sea of beach beds and deck chairs
... all along the coastline ... making strolls practically
impossible".
Criminal elements
In addition, the unwelcome arrival of criminal elements from
Russia, exposed recently in the Indian news magazine Outlook,
has also been widely noted by Goans. Some Russians are suspected
of using Goa as a handy money-laundering base, taking advantage
of the cover provided by tourism in much the same way as British
criminals have used the Spanish Costa del Sol as a convenient
haven.
India has been better than most south European countries at
preserving her beaches and surrounding areas from the
environmental devastations of tourism. But there is a constant
search for cheap holiday destinations. The test will be whether
the newly activated Goan citizenry can continue to fight the
developers not only on the beaches but throughout the interior
of one of India's most magical places.
More on the campaign at savegoa.com
Paradise lost
Around 6,802 hectares (some 17,000 acres) of land was classified
as settlement zone by the government under Regional Plan 2011.
Goa chief minister Pratapsingh Rane had stated that 1,847
hectares of cultivated land, 1,153 hectares of natural cover,
960 hectares of social forest, 22 hectares of mangroves and 75
hectares of export promotion zone were also classified as
settlement zones. If it had gone ahead the plan would have
meant:
* Major depletion of natural resources leading to ecological
imbalances throughout the state.
* Pressure on already saturated infrastructures, such as water,
electricity, sanitation and waste disposal, as the new
settlement areas would have been more resource-intensive
compared with the existing, mainly rural, settlements.
* The danger of a sudden boom followed by an eventual crash in
the building and real estate industry.
* Increased settlement along the coast in Calangute and
Candolim.
* Possible development of ecologically sensitive areas such as
mangrove and marsh lands.
* The destruction of forest cover for large mammal movements.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fred Menezes
http://fm-gazali.blogspot.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
___________________________________________________________
New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at
the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes.
http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://mail.yahoo.net/uk
