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----------------------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED, The time is come for the people of Goa to ORGANISE not AGONISE !! ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Wildlife habitat under threat in Socorro ---------------------------------------- Dear fellow animal/bird-lovers, All of you who are residing in Goa and are regularly reading the newspapers must be aware that our honorable IT Minister Dayanand Narvekar is planning to put up an IT Park at Socorro/Salvador-do-Mundo plateau. Under assumption that very few people know where this IT Park is going to be located, I am taking the liberty to inform you all. Perhaps those of you who were involved in organising wild-goa treks remember that you had once conducted such a trek at Socorro-Maina plateau? Well this proposed IT Park is going to include this area. In fact it is proposed to include a huge area of 12.5 lakh sq. m. of prime forest land - the entire topmost ridge of the plateau stretching from Salvador-do-Mundo village in the south and ending on the border of Ucassaim village in the north. Aaron Lobo has been to the site on 26 January along with Claude Alvares and he identified many animal droppings: hares are in abundance as also wild-boar, wild-cats and even leopard. There are also Python and peacocks. i am far from being an expert on animals and birds but i am passionate about preserving these and other species for my children to see in their natural habitat. Besides this, experts opine that turning this area into a concrete jungle will destroy the many indigenous species of plant life on the plateau forever. Many of us here in Socorro who love nature are struggling to preserve these forests for the enjoyment of future generations. But the questions we are raising about the necessity of destroying forest land (half of the area proposed for the IT Park is Private forest area),how the government proposes to treat sewage and garbage generated, whether it has conducted an Environment Impact Assessment are not only being met with silence from the government but are also being suppressed in the village Gram Sabhas and now recently the goons have started resorting to violence (my car and scooter was vandalised last week) to suppress any attempt to obtain information or raise questions. I, in the name of my colleagues, earnestly appeal for help from you, in the way you know best: conducting more and regular treks to the area to build up publicity, conducting site inspections by experts in the field of zoology, botany, ornithology, etc and preparing expert reports that could help to corroborate our claims that it is a wildlife habitat and a natural forest. Perhaps i am not able to word it well but i am sure you all know what i mean and will probably have better ideas than i have. If anyone would like to see some photos that we have taken at the site and also a satellite image of the plateau do write to me directly and I shall be happy to oblige. I am looking forward to a positive response from you. Regards, Valentine Coelho --------------------------------- Valentine Coelho is the Convenor Socorro Civic and Consumer Forum and can be contacted via emailid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ---------------------------------------------------------------------- promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goacan.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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