Goemkarponn desk
The defenders of the Wild were honoured at the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards, 2021, being streamed live at 6.45 p.m. This award ceremony was hosted by Bittu Sahgal, noted conservationist and founder of Sanctuary Nature Foundation, Dia Mirza, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and Aditi Kothari Desai, Vice Chairperson of DSP Investment Managers.
Noted primatologist Dr Jane Goodall was honoured as the Wildlife Legend Awardee. In Dr Goodall’s acceptance speech, she stated that “for those of us who care, we must collaborate”. In this spirit, the young people of Goa were awarded the Wildlife Service Award.
The awarded commendation states:
That out of concern for their forests and anger at the thought of their natural heritage being irreversibly destroyed, ordinary citizens got together to resist the destruction.
Students, doctors, lawyers, fisherfolks, architects, hoteliers, teachers, farmers, and scientists from Goa joined the movement.
Soon they won support from the rest of India and the world, all acutely aware of the connection between ecosystem damage, pandemics and climate change.
Petitions and online educational talks highlighting the value of Mollem were organised to increase awareness and encourage conversation.
Young Goa rose as one to attend public hearings, rallies and flash mobs and the media covered their transparent purpose admirably.
The most moving aspect of the campaign was the outpouring of creative solidarity that emerged from strangers. Films, songs, stories and art amplified the movement, including times when on-ground meetings were impossible.
Popular support for Amche Mollem keeps growing. Diverse, yet united voices spoke up for Mollem, and the Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee ordered a re-examination of all three projects, revoking one and modifying two.
Tragically one of the Mollem campaign’s stalwarts, Julio Cedric Aguiar, Vice Chairperson of Goencho Ekvott passed away during the peak of the resistance. His life has been a lesson in courage and resilience and served to strengthen the resolve of thousands of young Goans whose very future is at stake.
The Amche Mollem campaign is a true example of the power of the collective. It teaches all those who have made Earth’s biosphere’s protection a purpose of life that the best environmental defense strategies are home-brewed and imbued with joy, love, and dogged resilience.
