Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: Beginning on November 26, the expert committee appointed by the Union Ministry for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to review the State governments’ opinions and objections regarding Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESA) will travel to Goa for four days in order to verify the State’s submission on the ground.
In its submission to the Union Ministry, the Goa government suggested removing 21 villages off the ESA list.
This proposal was based on the findings of a seven-member committee constituted by the State and led by Dr. Devendra Pandey, the former director general of the Forest Survey of India.
The committee has suggested that 87 communities be classified as ESA since they satisfy the Ministry’s requirements.
The committee, led by former Forest Director-General Sanjay Kumar, will work with the state government to determine whether its requests to exclude villages designated as ESA are warranted.
The Environment Minister suggested that they visit the State and those areas because the ESA committee had certain concerns during the State response.
Twelve villages are from Sattari, five are from Dharbandora, three are from Sanguem, and one is from Canacona taluka, according to the government’s proposal.
Out of the 87 villages that were suggested under the ESA categories, 51 are located in Sattari taluka, 23 in Sanguem, 8 in Dharbandora, 4 in Canacona, and 1 in Ponda.
A total of 1,247 square kilometers of Goa are suggested for ESA classification. Once finalised, villages marked as ESA
