Protecting Goa - Letter To Editor

Protecting Goa This refers to the news report ‘Mining Magnate sparks controversy in Lisbon’ by (Herald, October 27, 2012 ) Goa will definitely be better off if more industrialists take it upon themselves to discourage potential foreign investors who desire to invest in Goa. All these years the politicians and industrialists ganged up to accuse activists of spoiling the business investment climate in Goa. Now they themselves are compelled to do it. In fact, it is the sheer arrogance and insensitivity of a handful of mining magnates in Goa that has contributed to an intellectual class and overactive judiciary becoming extremely conscious about environmental protection. Had it not been for those startling and shocking scars on Mother Earth that are visible on satellite imagery or while descending into Goa by air, Goans and visitors would have never known what environmental destruction is all about. Our ancestors always treated Mother earth as God and every living tree in those forests were sacred. Never had they dreamt that one day their holy places would be desecrated by the greedy and profit seeking Goans. Goans had never ever dreamt that there would come a time when there would be no place to even cremate or bury their dead;that water would become a rare commodity, fresh air a luxury, and movement by road would be restricted to satisfy the greed of a handful of industrialists and politicians. The law may be purchased, human beings may be silenced, but nature can never be vanquished by the rich and mighty of Goa. Soter D’Souza, Porvorim, Socorro Published in Herald, 31 Oct.2012