'Goa can set sustainable development example' - ToI

TNN | Feb 4, 2013, 01.45 AM IST PANAJI: Dressed in an outfit made of hand-woven fabric and persuading his audience at the D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas in Panaji about the need to go back to Mahatma Gandhi's teachings of simple living, Padma Vibhushan awardee and climate change campaigner R K Pachauri struck a chord with the audience with his conviction that "vulnerable" Goa still has time to preserve its rich biodiversity and even set an example of sustainable development. Speaking at Kala Academy on 'Initiating Transformative Change in India', the director general of the country's energy resources institute said that Goa needs a host of laws to ensure that its tourism does more good than harm. "Goa is a beautiful and fragile state. It is vulnerable in respect of its biodiversity. It is vulnerable in terms of its floating tourist population. The large number of people that come to the state do not have any stake in the land and informed citizenry is diluted. They are only looking for something in return for what they are spending. Goa needs regulations at every level to see that tourism in the state does not become distortionist," Pachauri said. He said that Goa needs to tread the path of Himachal Pradesh in sustainable development. "It is a state like Goa which does not have a large population like Himachal Pradesh, bounty of biodiversity and natural beauty that can set the pace for sustainable development and even benefit in economic terms from it. We are already working with Himachal Pradesh in the direction and its authorities are very receptive. Goa is not like Delhi, it is still in a state where it can move towards sustainable development," said the chairperson of the inter-governmental panel on climate change, under whose leadership the body was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Pachauri said that if Goa's leaders showed the needed courage, the proposed initiative would turn out to be contagious for the rest of the country. "We are forgetting the power of setting an example," he said. Responding to a question on Goa's mining imbroglio, Pachauri reminded the audience of a committee of which he was a part where its recommendations were adopted only for a short while before they were forgotten. "We had decided that the mining industry would start a fund which would be used to mitigate some of the damage done by mining. It was forgotten about after a while. But we cannot leave these things to the government alone. The time has come to set up bodies of the communities itself to monitor the damage. Even the pollution control boards should function under leaders who are independent of the government," Pachauri suggested. He said that a number of pioneers with courage are needed to overcome the inertia-which is bound to be there in a democratic set-up-to initiate change by setting individual examples. "Like Gandhi said, your life should be your message," Pachauri said, adding that he is optimistic that a change is around the corner. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-can-set-sustainable-development-example/articleshow/18325720.cms