“Do you hear the cries of the flame-throated bulbuls As you steal the home of the majestic hornbill This biodiversity is not your commodity...
“Do you hear the cries of the flame-throated bulbuls
As you steal the home of the majestic hornbill
This biodiversity is not your commodity…
We all know what’s at stake
Let’s save our Mollem before it’s too late.”
A young woman called Febronia Fernandes is one of many who gives voice to the turmoil in the land of my ancestors, Goa. Thousands squabble with officials, hold nightly vigils, spar with contractors and block a rail line in Mollem (pronounced Molle) – a quiet, sleepy corner of India’s smallest state and today the epicentre of a mass movement against the government.
Mollem nestles in the Western Ghats, one of the world’s eight “hottest hotspots” of biodiversity and the source of the numerous peninsular rivers, home to Goa’s largest wildlife sanctuary and the Dudhsagar falls. These wild treasures are now threatened by three infrastructure projects: the expansion of a 150-km stretch of national highway linking Goa to Karnataka, a 345-km railway line between the two states and a power transmission line.
More than 50,000 trees are likely to be felled and a lush landscape permanently scarred.
The rail line, which is also likely to ravage the Dandeli tiger reserve in Karnataka, will mostly haul coal from Goa’s Mormugao port to Karnataka’s coal-fired power stations, among the 70% that have...
