Beyond the Grave: Looking Back: Goa - on the Road to Perdition? For the week which passed (17/7/21-14) when I was alive on Planet Earth.
Goa’s traditional fishermen who appear anachronistic to a lot of people who wear a suit-n-tie might know something the well-dressed people do not! The fishermen have been fishing in the rivers and the sea for as long as Goa has had a history and mythology. They understand nature better than anyone else. They go fishing every day and are a part of the sea and not a 5-star swimming pool and air-condition culture. They are deeply connected to nature unlike our virtual Bollywood heros who don’t understand nature and cannot feel it. Anyway, what is nature for? Some people think it is only for development of infra-structure and tall buildings. They speak of the greenery and beauty of Goa and in the next breath talk about how wonderful it would be if Goa becomes another Singapore or Macao. But then, Goa wouldn’t be Goa anymore, right? The dredging of the rivers - is another name for getting rid of the sewage pollution - and dumping all of it into the big blue sea. Where is the problem? Obviously, the hotel and guest houses and households which dump their sewage into our rivers and which do not have a proper sewage system. And, don’t forget River Mandovi is our mother! We also need a system for the treatment of non-wet garbage, Goa’s other iconic headache. The problem is also caused by the voters who do not follow the rules but simply dump their garbage on the street the way people used to do in Mumbai and other big cities in India. Out of sight is out of mind. They did it for decades until they were taught a lesson when the drains got choked. In Delhi, it is the people who get choked! Isn’t it time people who are destroying our rivers and sea also be taught a lesson by Mother Nature?
