May 15th, 2016
GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRESS NOTE
GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT salutes Goa’s Ramponkar community, who in
fighting for their traditional livelihoods are also making a heroic stand to
safeguard our vulnerable coastline and our precious marine biodiversity, at
great costs to themselves. The values guiding the traditional fishing
communities are the principles of ‘Sustainable Development’ our government
claims to be searching for, while it continues to ruthlessly destroy natural
resources and sustainable economies in blind slavery to short-term profit and
corruption.
Since Goa is a coastal state, the contribution of the Ramponkars to preserving
and protecting the coastal zone is invaluable. Through the decades, it has been
the Ramponkars who have taken a firm and uncompromising stand on the side of
Mother Nature. It was the Ramponkars who insisted that the breeding season
monsoon ban be adhered to and who have been consistently fighting against
destructive and rapacious fishing practices like bull trawling and now LED
light fishing, as well as pollution of our rivers and coastal areas, among
other issues.
GFSD therefore, calls upon all traditional communities, sensitive citizens, and
lovers of Goa, including all farmers, tribals, oppressed classes, tenants,
toddy tappers, etc to wholeheartedly rally behind our Ramponkar brothers,
because this is not only the fight of the Ramponkars, but the fight of all
traditional communities and sensible citizens against anti-Goa, unsustainable
and suicidal policies. This predatory onslaught of vested interests is actively
aided and abetted by the present State government, which is only interested in
helping casinos, marinas, polluting industries, unregulated tourism and land
sharks, while destroying Goa and displacing the same Goans who elected it to
power.
In recent years, it has been an increasingly lonely fight for Ramponkars and
other traditional communities in their quest to safeguard their interests and
their livelihoods, which are deeply entwined with and dependent on the ecology
and the environment. All Goans who value their motherland, therefore, should
rally behind their causes, because the destruction of our traditional
communities would remove the last bastion against the wholesale and
unobstructed, irreversible destruction of Goa’s ecology, environment and thus
her economy and way of life.
The Regional Plan, RP 2021, has been specially designed with a view to destroy
the Ramponkars and other traditional communities. We have seen how the
traditional jetties used by Ramponkars, their habitations and fishing areas,
coastal areas, sand dunes, etc have all been earmarked for 5-star Hotels,
marinas, etc, thus paving the way for the replacement of the Ramponkar and
other traditional communities with short term commercial interests of robber
barons that will spell doom for Goa, sending us down the path of Spain,
Casablanca and other bankrupt economies.
GFSD stands firm behind our Ramponkar heroes and once again appeals to all
Goans to come out and rally behind them in this important and crucial issue for
Goa and Goans.
For GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Rony Dias Eremito Rebelo
