PANAJI: State govt will circulate the draft notification proposing to declare 108 Goan villages as eco-sensitive areas (ESAs) among panchayats and MLAs to seek their objections and suggestions.
“Forty days are left to submit objections and suggestions to the environment ministry,” chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Friday. He said that once again he will write to Union govt to notify only 63 villages as ESAs.
Govt is hopeful that the villages that don’t meet the criteria won’t be declared as ESAs. It had written to Centre to notify only 63 villages as ESAs out of the 99 declared in the draft notification.
In July 2022, the Union ministry issued a draft notification proposing that 99 Goan villages, spread over 1,461sqkm, be declared as ESAs. In June 2024, the Union ministry agreed that there were discrepancies between the plan and the villages that had been included in the draft notification of 99 villages, and it will be rectified.
The ministry said that notice is hereby given that the said draft notification shall be taken into consideration for publishing the final notification of the Western Ghats ESAs in a phased manner, either state-wise or through a combined single notification, on or after the expiry of 60 days from the date on which copies of the gazette containing this notification are made available to the public.
State govt had written to central govt to notify only 63 villages as ESAs, so that state does not face economic loss and unemployment for the inhabitants.
In its letter to the Union environment ministry, Goa govt had said that in many of the villages which need to be excluded from ESAs, there are both major and minor minerals, and they have been leased out with valid environmental clearances.
