Giving comprehensible evidence of destruction to mangroves and ecosystems, environmentalists have strongly opposed the dredging of River Sal which they claimed is unscientific. However, the dredging work has been stopped since Monday.
On Tuesday, Roy Barretto along with few other environmentalists and traditional fishermen visited the site at Chinchinim along with the media persons, wherein the destruction of the ecosystem was witnessed, as a result of dredging with unscientific manner.
All the stakeholders, including other environmentalists will hold a meeting to deliberate on the issue in the next couple of days.
It is pertinent to note that few days before a delegation of River Sal stakeholders, including traditional fishermen had submitted a memorandum to the Captain of Ports (CoP) and the Goa State Biodiversity Board to immediately stop the river dredging work. The delegation had claimed that the fishing community inhabiting the banks of River Sal is dependent on the river for their livelihood.
Barretto said, “They are dumping all the dredge material in the middle of the island. We can see the aerial roots. All this mud dumped will destroy the entire ecosystem.” He further explained how the ecosystem has already been affected due to the dredging in an unscientific manner.
“This habitat is also a place where many otters used to take shelter. However, not this habitat is already destroyed. The dredge material cannot be dumped in such a way, and it is totally against the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) law,” said Barretto.
CoP is passing the buck to Green Tribunal (NGT) in defence, but the NGT will never direct the concerned authorities to carry out dredging of the river by doing destructions.
Traditional fishermen have also demanded a strict action against the contractor. Barretto said the CoP has called a meeting with all the concerned authorities, but before that the environmentalists and traditional fishermen will be having their internal meeting to discuss the future course of action.