PANAJI
Arguably one of Goa’s most famous contemporary literateurs, sahitya akademi award winner Damodar Mauzo has lent his voice to the chorus against the three infrastructural projects that are threatening Mollem’s heritage and biodiversity.
In a short video of around five minutes, Mauzo narrates in Konkani, the pain that Mollemkars are facing on account of the environmental destruction threatening the forests there.
Mauzo asks, “…A crisis has come upon the village of Mollem, but be it Mollem or Pernem, Sanguem or Sattari, if a hardship comes upon Mollemkars, are we Goans just going to stand by and watch?”
The writer, who is known for taking up the cause of social issues that threaten the very fabric of Goa, points out that Mollemkars are justifiably agitated as all the trees that are threatened by destruction, also have life.
Speaking of the wildlife in the region, Mauzo says that it is not wildlife that is hampering roads/development, rather it is the roads through the forest that are hampering the animals. Per year, 40,000 species of wildlife are killed because they come under the wheels of vehicles, he cites.
In the video, he goes on to recite a poem by Sharaschandra Khandeparker, a superannuated teacher from Mollem. The poem is called “Laachar Mollekar, Laachar Goenkar” - Helpless Mollemkars, Helpless Goans.
It speaks about how Goans were helpless during Portuguese times, and now once again are helpless before the current ruling dispensation.
“We’re helpless because we will no longer be able to drive jeeps to the Dudhsagar waterfall, and after all that, only all of a dozen people will get the “employment” they are promising in the area. “If we oppose the projects, they are threatening to cut off our electricity, so we feel helpless,” the poet laments.
Mauzo says that this poem encapsulates not only the voice of Sharaschandra Khandeparker, but also the voices of all the residents of Mollem.
Mauzo ends the video telling Goans that today, our government does not care as much about Goa as it does about coal.
‘Mental well-being linked to green spaces’
PANAJI: A panel of four experts on Saturday had a discussion around how increasing mental health problems in the world are being linked to the disappearance of green spaces in the environment.
Organised by the “Save Mollem Campaign,” the online panel discussion, moderated by Nerissa Santimano, a Goan and a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, London, deliberated on how studies have shown that the closer people with depression live to green spaces, the faster they heal from depression.
Panelist Dr Debarati Mukherjee from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Bangalore, pointed out that the size/area of the green space also helped in curing people from depression : the larger the green space, the higher the rate of healing.
One of the participants in the Google Meet, which was attended by close to a hundred people, voiced out that her friends in Delhi with severe mental health problems were desperate to move to Goa to get cured from their mental health problems, which would be possible because of Goa’s green spaces.
Speaking specifically about the “Save Mollem Campaign,” panelist Deepti Sharma, a storyteller, praised the campaign for being an action-oriented one, while Professor Vikram Patel from the Harvard Medical School, urged Goans to come forward and fight for the Mollem forests.
Meanwhile the “Save Mollem Campaign” has started a “Save Mollem Selfie Challenge”.
