Speak up against projects which damage environment: Goa Archbishop

In an overt appeal, Goa Archbishop Father Filipe Neri Ferrao on Thursday urged people to raise their voice against anti-environment projects.

The comments by the religious figure come at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government is facing flak from the Opposition, as well as civil society groups over three projects being pushed by the Central government related to the rail, road and power sectors.

"There are so many ways in which we can spread the light of our faith in our community and society. For example, the environment is our common home. It is our responsibility to defend it. But when we witness so much bad multiplying around us -- we witness a situation in which the earth, the environment is being sullied, we are witnessing plans which will bring bad to the society," the Archbishop said in his sermon at a religious event.

"In such a situation, when there are plans that instead of bringing good, they will only lead to more pollution, will only put our lives and future in jeopardy, then we cannot afford to say I do not care or that this does not matter to me," said Ferrao.

50,000 trees in and around Mollem, a village located along the Goa-Karnataka border, have been slotted for felling for three Central government projects. The projects which primarily deal with doubling of the South Western Railway tracks, widening of the National Highway 4A and setting up of a private power plant, have already been cleared by the National Wildlife Board for Wildlife in April this year.

Activists, as well as Opposition parties, fear that the projects are aimed at facilitating increased transportation of coal from Goa’s Mormugao Port Trust to the steel mills in Karnataka’s Bellary district and nearby areas.

The Archbishop's comments are inadvertently expected to provide a fillip to the protestors as well as the Opposition, which has been targetting the BJP-led coalition government over the issue.

Ferrao in her sermon also said, that the Spanish Saint Francis Xavier, who is revered as the patron saint of Goa, also spoke against injustices and urged the people of Goa to speak out "when the environment is likely to be polluted when intergenerational equity is not being enhanced and preserved".