To Whom This May Concern., Thank you for the mail; but it didn't contain any message/reply. Will you kindly forward these as well as the previous comments to those who may be concerned..newspapers...those who have an interest in Goa's best future..
**************************** Heritage..natural and colonial. I feel the best thing that has happened in recent times is the ban on land conversion. I hope this legislation is strictly enforced and renewed in perpetuity beyond 2011. Or else there will be no Goa left to see, the way we know it. Money ..money ..money: It really makes the world go round..atleast it makes the land owning Goans and all the lobbies that support them, go round and spin in delight.Soon all us ethnic Goans will be aliens and outsiders in our very own Goa..perhaps 10 years from now!! The rates of land are unaffordable to the average Goan; notwithstanding the highest per capita income that Goa has. How on earth can the average Goan generate even over several lifetimes(if they had this !) 30-60-100-...3000 lacs for a properties advertised..besides robbing a bank? Also urgently can we work on forcing legislators to legislate on what I could call: "Preservation of Natural Habitats in Urban/semi-Urban inhabited areas". This should cover hillocks/hills/and all private properties with natural greenery.Areas in inhabited localities will have to be declared as strictly "green zones" and all constructions/felling of trees prohibited. Just to tell you: I used to do the Margao-Ponda trip daily at one time...It was disgusting to see huge trees standing one day, and gone the next day.And the area in an around the KTC at Margao: is nothing but a massacre zone for greenery..some very ugly looking complexes have come up...in probably what are fields. Development along the Marcela-Banastarim route is another eyesore...the casualties are huge cashew trees and hillocks. The road is being widened and it was so saddening to see very old coconut trees being chopped and pulled down. I know the months of care it takes to even get a coconut to germinate...and the joy to see that small shoot emerge....leave alone the 7 or so years it takes to get the first coconut; if at all the plant survives!! In our own Sao Estevao: there is an isolated spot called Tolto that is just across the river from Daugim. Its so fabulously beautiful....with trees encroaching on the narrow hardly used road...banyans letting down their branches....just like paradise. It obviously sustains a lot of wildlife. But that's already/may gradualy be under threat.Elsewhere all over Goa ugly brown cleared patches are visible on GoogleEarth satellite pictures. There is similar beauty elsewhere...I've seen it in Naroa. This has to be urgently preserved. We dont want later generations asking us:What of nature did you leave behind for us?". Its a known fact that when habitats are destroyed; the wildlife also goes away and it is next to impossible to regenerate destroyed natural habitats.If we wish to preserve nature's biodiversity; you simply have to preserve natural habitats. And Goa has a large number of these within inhabited areas that need preservation. The other thing that needs to be done is to preserve all heritage structures(pre-1961) which is the most important defining aspect of Goa that makes Goa different from every other part of the country. The rate at which these are being pulled down and ugly eyesore buildings/matchbox-structures (often with steel rods protruding from top for future construction above) come up..little will be left soon.Can we have a census and documentation of all houses in every village /part of Goa. Digital photography can come in very hand...so that all this can be archived. There is strict legislation in Bombay on preservation.Perhaps we can learn from them.(??INTACH) Same with Old Goa. People very insensitively(I've seen even priests do it inadvertently by mistake) walk over tombstones within churches. Many are effeced beyond recognition. Especially the St. Monica Church and the Bom Jesu Bascilica.Perhaps at least coir mats can be laid over...and the tombs photographed and archived...for future repairs.The relief work of the facades and walls of the Bom Jesu Basilica seem to be crumbling..and some really odd colored red cement is used to do fillings(it looks very ugly and unnatural). Perhaps its time to cement to whole structure with mortar..we'd rather have a whitewashed Basilica with all the relief work preserved than none at all.The laterite bricks will not be able to withstand the ravages of time and the pollution any more...I believe the central highway did not exist before 1971? Elsewhere also cementing is done so horribly and unprofessionally that it masks the original designs of facades of many structures like churches and crosses: egs. The Sao Estevao Church to some extent: but they seem to have done the cementing reasonably well and preserved the relief work, the Cross in the Holy Spirit Church compound in Margao, or the cross of the Nuvem Church(The cross is on the other side of the road. Also an unsightly concrete canopy at the entrance of this church -like the Navelim Church - looks ugly and is already cracked(Nuvem)..it may simply pull the facade along with it and fall down!!)..the list seems endless.Old Hindu temples too, with their very distinctive sycretism of Indian-Portuguese architecture also need to be preserved.Finally all electrical/flammable material (including candles) should be kept away from all wooden carvings and similar structures in churches/elsewhere.Fancy electric lights/plastic flowers/hotel lobby style chandeliers: they dont add to the beauty of any Church/other structure; but spoil it rather. Thanks, Neil Rangel. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
