Posted by Pamela
D'Mello on 21 June 2019
A community is actively pursuing the
conservation of a Portuguese-era hilltop lake in north Goa.
The reservoir lies in a high-value
real estate area which is being eyed by developers for construction projects.
In the latest progress, the citizen’s
efforts have led to a consultation that will potentially declare the hilltop
natural reservoir as a wetland, protecting it with a buffer zone.
On a rainy day last week, June 12, as
cyclone Vayu was pelting rain on Goa, 400 villagers braving inclement weather,
gathered at a community hall. They were there for Goa’s first consultation on
the potential declaration of a hilltop natural reservoir, as a wetland. The
consultation, called by the Goa State Wetland Authority was a hard-fought
victory by villagers of Santa Cruz, a suburban area adjoining Goa’s capital
Panjim. For the past decade, the people of Santa Cruz had tried every avenue to
save their villages’ crowning glory, Bondvol Lake, a 110-year-old natural
reservoir that collects rain and spring water over a 9.365-hectare submergence
basin. Citizens have been actively pursuing their demand. They have held bike
rallies, public meetings, mobilized special gram sabhas, taken awareness treks
for school children, filed complaints, accompanied flying squads, photographed
and videographed violations and dug into historical archive material to back
their court petitions as well as lobbied with panchayat, politicians, and state
government offices.
Since 2009, construction firms and
land grabbers had stealthily damaged the lake’s drainage (sluice) valves, in a
bid to dry out the lake and usurp the land. The natural forests around the lake
were surreptitiously felled and kutcha (temporary) roads
leading to the lake were constructed at the hilltop site, while goons posted at
the site, scared off birders and other common citizens from approaching the
lake area.
A community’s heritage
“Bondvol lake is officially owned by
the local Calapor Comunidade (an ancient village land-owning
institution in charge of common village lands). My great grandfather was one of
the original gaonkars (villagers) that helped construct the
lake. It has unique natural hydrology that collects rainwater from the hills
that surround it on three sides. And on the fourth side, the villagers
fortified an earthen embankment. In 1910, colonial authorities put in a valve
and a spillway was created to irrigate the fields in the surrounding area,”
said Calapor Comunidade attorney Peter Gonsalves (60).
Gonsalves made an impassioned plea to
save the lake, at the June 12 consultation, “You can construct buildings. But
water is a precious resource, and where we have it, we have to preserve it.”
In 2017, the Calapor Comunidade had
moved the Bombay High Court’s Goa bench to seek protection for Bondvol Lake.
Another citizen, Arturo D’Souza also filed a public interest petition in the
High Court at the same time. While other villagers moved the National Green
Tribunal.
“We, the villagers have decided that
we will do what it takes to save our community asset, the Bondvol Lake,” said
architect and teacher Elsa Fernandes (48).
Villagers became aware of the land
mafia mischief at Bondvol, around six years ago, when they observed, using
Google imagery, how the lake had degraded and depleted over the years. “Twenty-five
years ago the lake was filled to the brim, with 15-meter-high water levels.
Bondvol is located on top of a difficult-to-access dense forested hill, in a
pristine environment. We knew the level was dropping, but nobody knew why. It
was later that we realized it was manmade sabotage. The spillway was damaged
and stones and mud in the embankment were being removed and fruit trees were
being planted on the embankment itself, so the roots could further damage the
dam,” said Fernandes.
A “Save Bondvol Lake” movement got
traction in the 6,100-household village in 2016. Alert citizens noticed roads
and construction firms gearing up to construct apartments on the lake’s
periphery. While on its drying up the bed, a single-tenant was readying to
usurp a vast track of the lake’s bed and convert community property to private
ownership.
“We petitioned several government
authorities, but had to finally approach the court for justice in 2017,” said
petitioner Arturo D’Souza.
The High Court ordered the Water
Resource Department to repair and refit the lake’s sluice valve. This provoked
a community celebration at the site, with young and old turning up in numbers
to witness the event. A year later, another celebration was held by villagers,
when even in the hottest month of May, the restored valve saw the lake
naturally rejuvenate itself. “Earlier, by November end, water would deplete.
But last year, there was two meters of water even up to May end,” said
Fernandes.In November 2017, the high court set up a task force to enumerate
forest trees and demarcate a 200-meter area around the lake for a no-development
buffer zone from the water’s edge.
Claiming back their environment
Pressure from villagers saw
construction projects for row houses slowly move away. The movement petitioned
the collector’s office against felling of trees obtaining a ‘stop work’ order
against prominent builders. The last hurdle, villagers say is the claim by a
single tenant over large areas of the lake bed. “We think it is illegal”, said
Fernandes. The claim though is a case study of how land mafias have
grabbed village common lands and Comunidade land, misusing
tenancy laws and backed by politically-connected land lobbies, she opined. What
was earlier a tenancy lease from the Comunidade for just four
months of the year, on a 550 sq m lot on the upper slopes of the dried out lake
for a December-May third cropping season, got permanently formalized by lower
courts through ex parte hearings. Finally, attempts were being made to usurp
21,000 sq m of the lake bed, misusing tenancy laws.
Land owning Comunidades were
financially and politically hollowed out by post-1961 governments. In
1979, Comunidade members asked the water resource department
to maintain the lake. But the WRD’s attempt to conserve the lake in 2009, was
thwarted by a court injunction from the sole tenancy claimant. In the
controversial pro-realtor 2011 Regional Plan, the area was zoned as settlement,
with the construction industry readying to move in. A push back from citizens
saw the area now zoned as environment heritage in the 2021 Regional Plan.
The final step for declaring Bondvol as
a wetland complex
With the sluice valve repaired, and
villagers now vigilant, the Save Bondvol Lake movement is hopeful the waterbody
will be declared as a wetland ecosystem, to gain additional environmental
protection for their community asset. The June 12 consultation was the first
step. But villagers are worried that tenant claimants could still block the
wetland declaration, through written submissions before the Wetland Authority
Board.
The conservation of Bondvol was backed
by the February 2018 Task Force on Bondvol Lake report. This underscored its
qualification not just as a wetland in itself, but as a wetland complex, along
with its downstream water bodies and conduits. The Task Force endorsed taking
an ecosystem approach for Bondvol, mapping trees, shrubs and grasses and
calling for the protection of the forested slopes outside the NDZ in the 2
square kilometer catchment area of the lake as well.
“We have our fingers crossed,” said
Arturo D’Souza, as the Goa State Biodiversity Board conducts the seven days
hearing of objections, before preparing and placing the Brief Document for its
declaration as a wetland ecosystem before the state board for approval.
Article published by Aditi
[1] The
above news clipping is not related to the judgement on commons ,(Civil Appeal
No. 1132/2011 @SLP(C) No. 3109/2011 ) however it has been added here due to its
relevance to Commons .
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