MOLLEM: A day after chief minister Pramod Sawant blamed “propaganda” by “external forces” over the Mollem issue going international, he said on Friday that his government was committed to conserving the biodiversity of the state and protecting Mollem.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the 4th bird festival organised by the state’s forest department at Mollem on Friday, Sawant, in a veiled dig at the “external forces” driving the campaign against the three projects, said: “We are more concerned about Mollem and Goa. And Mollemkars and Goemkars are quite capable of saving Mollem and Goa.”
Stressing on the need for conservation of forests “with a balanced outlook,” Sawant said, “Just as our forefathers took great care to preserve nature and regional biodiversity, this generation too is taking great care towards conserving nature. There’s a need to conserve nature and showcase the rich biodiversity to the people, so that domestic and international tourists get attracted to the state”.
The CM further underscored the need to resolve issues in forest areas that often lead to conflict between local residents and forest officials. Stating that over 10,000 tribals and other forest dwellers have applied under the Forest Rights Act, Sawant said nearly 3,000 applications have been cleared during the initial phases of scrutiny.
He said that the pace of processing the applications would hasten once more surveyors are recruited, which, he said, would be done soon. He said it would be his endeavor to restore to the tribals their rights on forest land and forest produce, and provide them with livelihood opportunities.
Sawant further said that people residing in forest areas have been provided training by the forest department to serve as “nature guides” to tourists, and that several “van mitras” will be trained to identify and harvest various species of medicinal plants from the forests.
This, he said was aimed at diverting a section of tourists to hinterland tourism, and to enable Goa to make a mark on the international tourism map.
PWD minister Deepak Pauskar and principal chief conservator of forests Subhash Chandra also spoke.