Please view the web-album to get an idea of what all this is about... http://picasaweb.google.co.in/Nandkamat/OdxelValleyInTaleigaoMarkedForClearance#5479387668296171602 Where Odxel ward of Taleigao ends and Cancra ward of St. cruz begins- you find the Odxel valley. Same type of Valley we would see behind Betim's Malim fishing jetty. This is also colonised illegally. While surveying the boundaries of our university campus to detect environmental violations, I came across the Odxel valley and development which is encroaching on its' pristine beauty. Even during summer the eye soothing evergreen vegetation spread upto the edge of Marmagoa bay ( not Zuari river as CZMA mistakenly believes to benefit the developers) offers a breathtaking view of birds of prey-kites and fishing eagles. Such a location has right to exist and exist intact ...the 5000 years old route to the valley is marked by saced banyan trees-Vad-with megalithic stone circles. At least one "Barazan' location was found where Budhvont used to sit and oracles used to be cast. These are very old places for sacrifices. The valley has a huge rare Ficus tree (F. benjamina? I need to check) which supports many nests of kites and eagles. You can see this tree even on Google map, The big question is how to stop the development which is spreading towards the valley. The flying squad would find some work here as a house is coming up by clearing vegetation. There was no sign of men and machinery probably because this development is done in "slow motion" to evade detection. One pit per week, one wall per month. Once the structure is up-then there is hesitation to demolish it. The vegetation in the valley is not ordinary type-it is evolved under environmental stresses-steep slope, lateritic soil, high winds, heavy lashing rains...the Aldeia project-an eye sore concrete jungle has already manicured similar valley-Bambolim valley-so what could be the fate of Odxel valley?. -- Dr. Nandkumar Kamat, GOA
