Mining gives no peace to the dead at Advalpal -ToI

Mining gives no peace to the dead at Advalpal Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN | Oct 25, 2012, 01.29AM IST ADVALPAL: Villagers of Varchawaddo and Kollamwaddo in Bicholim taluka's Advalpal panchayat were living a peaceful rural life until the monsoon of 2006, when they first noticed red slush trickling and then flowing like an ever-growing stream into their houses. The flow of the slurry from the mining dumps above the village filled up their houses faster than they could act, and to their utter shock began to swallow furniture, televisions and other domestic items. The incident motivated schoolboy Akash Naik to approach the courts and get operations at the mine stayed but this, and other mining operations, changed the villagers' lives forever. For one, residents of Varchawaddo and Kollamwaddo are forced to cremate their dead in their backyards as the village ancestral crematorium has been consumed by mining dumps. "The crematorium was a provision made by our ancestors. Our dead were being cremated in this marked land as long as we and our elderly can remember. Mining rejects are now piled on the plot. For the last six year we have been forced to cremate our ancestors in our backyard. It is considered inauspicious by Hindus to cremate the dead within your living space but we are left with no option," Varchawaddo resident Vijay Padloskar said, pointing to the land where red lumps lie in a heap. He said villagers have written to the panchayat seeking a new space for a crematorium and the issue was also raised with local MP Shripad Naik. "A plot was identified, but there has been no progress on it as there are access issues," Vijay said. Villagers informed that a philanthropic local provides space in his property to carry out cremations to villagers who do not have sufficient land to cremate their dead. "The property is around two kilometers away from Varchawaddo and Kollamwaddo," a villager said. The small forested end of the village backyard, squeaks and slithers with sounds of wildlife, yet the disturbing silence of closed mines only meters away appears to scream louder than all other sounds. A young resident Amresh Naik said the mines have robbed villagers of firewood gathered from the dense growth of trees that once existed on the hills. "The stray dry branches collected from the trees would fuel fires to heat our water and cook rice. Villagers use cooking gas sparingly because of the cost factor. Today, even if we have to excess wood in the forests that are still surviving, we have to pass through the mine, where we are not allowed and we are said to be trespassing," Amresh said. Vidhi Padloskar recalls a time when the local spring water was the village lifeline. "Our ancestors once drank the stream water. That changed when mining grew. Today, we have tap water for drinking, the supply of which is not sufficient for washing clothes and other domestic chores and we still depend on the spring but the flow is getting thinner every year," the young woman said. Villagers said ground water pumped out by the mines is not diverted for the benefit of villagers, nor have any locals been offered jobs. "Forget jobs, the cashew trees whose fruits villagers would pluck to earn a living have long been destroyed," Vijay said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Mining-gives-no-peace-to-the-dead-at-Advalpal/articleshow/16945367.cms