PANAJI: The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), in an order last month, imposed costs of over Rs 39 crore — perhaps the highest so far — on the owner of a property at Vaddy, Siolim, to recover compensation for environmental damage.
Despite a challenge by the violator to the cost calculated, the GCZMA upheld its calculation of environmental costs noting that four different ecosystems have been damaged in the property—mangroves, sand dunes, mud flats and salt marshes. The authority said that the decision is based on the polluter pays principle. The GCZMA also noted that the violations were carried out over seven long years, for which the compensation has been calculated.
“The respondent shall accordingly pay the environmental compensation of Rs 39.5 crore within a month of receipt of this order,” the GCZMA said. It said that a formula accepted by the NGT was used to calculate the compensation amount.
Residents of Vaddy, Siolim, had first filed a complaint with the GCZMA in 2012 regarding the violation. In April 2017, GCZMA’s directives asked the violator to restore the opening of the sluice gate to its original size, to remove the mud filling carried out in the lagoon and restore to its original state, to remove the concrete platform constructed along the Chapora river banks, and to demolish and remove the boundary wall constructed up to the edge of the river.
However, when the violator filed a compliance report in 2018, the GCZMA verified and found that the directive to remove the mud filling of the lagoon was yet to be complied with. The GCZMA asked the Bardez deputy collector to ensure compliance of the authority’s directions and to recover the cost incurred for such compliance from the violator as arrears of land revenue.
Over time, the offenders approached the NGT against the GCZMA order, but the application was dismissed on two occasions. The review petition was dismissed by the NGT in July 2021.
Subsequently, a complainant also approached the high court stating inaction from the GCZMA, and in 2024, the HC passed an order asking GCZMA to recover environmental compensation from the violator.
Similarly, the Goa Paryavaran Savrakshan Sangarsh Committee filed an application before the NGT seeking prevention of construction of unauthorised structures in the CRZ area. In 2022, the NGT directed that the violator complies with all of GCZMA’s directives or, it said, the GCZMA is at liberty to take coercive steps for compliance of the directions.
Accordingly, the deputy collector of Bardez convened a joint inspection of the site in June 2024 to assess the quantum of excavation carried out.
During the GCZMA hearing in Sep this year over environmental compensation, the lawyers for the violators stated that the environmental cost should have been calculated only for the damaged area and not the whole property.
The complainant said that the argument was a feeble attempt by the violator to escape the payment of costs for the damages carried out.
