'Why?' ask Cavrem residents on being told mining may restart (ToI)

'Why?' ask Cavrem residents on being told mining may restart Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN | Sep 2, 2013, 07.05 AM IST CAVREM: Red, green, red, green, red. Chequered with now dormant mines and the lush green of natural vegetation cradled by Kushavati river, in no other region is mining activity so intimately woven into greenery of the forests dotted with tribal homes as in Cavrem in South Goa. "The only thing we miss about mining is that we can no more hitch a ride to the city from mining supervisors driving jeeps," jokes a teacher at the government primary school in Cavrem, where mining trucks crawling by the school laden with iron ore, before the ban on mining, had for years made the task of teaching a tough exercise. The young teacher, who did not wish to be named, pointed to the crisp and clean new charts of animals and alphabets that have replaced the dust soiled old ones on her classroom's walls. "Bus service was unpredictable because even bus operators dreaded their vehicle getting jammed for hours on a busy day between crawling mining trucks. We had to mind students when school hours ended to keep them safe from the mining traffic. Teachers had to be much louder to be heard over the drone of trucks by students. The walls that have turned red with the dust will soon be painted by the government again, we have been told," said the teacher. The teacher counted the number of things she and her colleagues do not miss about mining, standing in the midst of giggling children, for whom the government school is the only primary institution serving their tribal hamlet of Cavrem. As the teachers and students at the institution marvel at their newly found peace, deeper into a green, mountainous patch, Prabhavati Gaonkar is busy absorbing the sights of flowerings on her chili plants-the first she has seen since the last three years. "The chili flowerings wilted away with dust settling on them in 2010 as mining activity reached its peak that year. The following year, we did not grow chilies at all as we already knew what their fate would be. Villagers are seeing healthy flowerings after three years," the middle-aged Prabhavati explains. She and her sister-in-law Geetavati had spent a couple of days lying onto the village roads to block trucks transporting ore from an increasing ruthless mining activity in 2011, which, villagers say, even swallowed a portion of the revered sacred groves of the tribals. The villagers were famously led in their protests by Nilesh Gaonkar, who registered a complaint against unknown accused for an attack that left him with more than one fractured bone, incidentally, at the height of his mining protests. "Close to 50 men from the village were employed in the mines. Of these many joined the protest, when they realized that damage to our village was getting increasingly worrisome. For others, around 25 to 30 village men, supervisory jobs at the mines continued to bring easier money than slogging in the fields. As the days go by and there is no sign of mining resuming, it is getting more and more difficult in the village to be vocal about opposition to mining for the rest of us," Nilesh says. "Why?" asks Ratnavati Goankar, in utter disbelief, when told that the government is looking at starting mining operations again in the state. For her, mining may have stopped for now, but reduced natural water supply and decreased paddy yield due to years of siltation continue to serve as harsh reminders of the ills of mining. "Since mining has stopped, the flow of the existing streams is better. But in some cases, mining has destroyed the very source of the stream due to slicing of the mountains for ore. Even today, when it rains the silt continues to flow into the paddy fields. The yield is at least two quintals lower since reckless mining began around 2010 in Cavrem. The cashew yield has been much better this year," she shrugs. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Why-ask-Cavrem-residents-on-being-told-mining-may-restart/articleshow/22219957.cms