The State of Goa is part of the Western Ghats’ ecosystem which has been subjected to a great deal of developmental pressures. These pressures have been existing since the intensification of agricultural pastoralism and the rising density of human settlement mostly in the river valleys and near the estuaries. Progressive human interference in the ecosystems of Goa has caused their fragmentation and has led to significant impacts on the wild biodiversity.
Although it is not possible to create an index of the fragmentation of ecosystems as yet, the proximate causes could be identified and categorized as follows:-
A. Natural and anthropogenic:
I. Soil Erosion:
Soil erosion is a major cause of loss of precious habitats and biodiversity. Soil erosion is generally caused due to the loosening of topsoil on gradients after cutting of the hills and removal of vegetation. The National Bureau of Survey of Lands and Soils in India, Nagpur in their 1995 report on Soils of Goa, has identified taluka-wise the areas where serious soil erosion is a major problem. The loss of topsoil and the organic fraction is a major reason for diminishing soil biological diversity. There are some 25 different soil types in Goa which have not been explored for their in situ biodiversity, so very little knowledge exists about the real impact of soil erosion on loss of biodiversity.
II. Climate Change and Sea Level Rise (SLR):
The impacts of both climate change and Sea Level Rise (SLR) on biodiversity have been well-documented in the general literature and are therefore not list here. Goa has already been facing erratic monsoon precipitation and sharp declines in water availability, both of which are bound to have enormous consequences for biodiversity.
B. Anthropogenic:
I. Deforestation:
This has caused progressive loss of forest cover and artificial vegetation breaks, impacting the wild habitats and the biodiversity. Most of these hotspots are found in the Western Ghats forests and foothills. The practice of traditional burning and shifting cultivation, locally known as kumeri, now banned, has also resulted in artificial vegetation breaks, and unbroken forest canopies have caused a change in vegetation dynamics. The practice of clearfelling of the trees after 1962-63 and the emergence of forest contractors lobbies also caused tremendous deforestation during the last 40 years. Only a marginally small patch of virgin forest has been left along the Goa-Karnataka border, which supports some last patches of wild habitats and species.
There are many drivers which accelerated deforestation, for example, clearance of forest for mining activity, monoculture plantations such as eucalyptus, rubber and their location, etc. Activities such as quarrying, construction of roads and highways, digging trenches for water supply pipelines, etc. have also impacted on the forest areas during the past 40 years.
II. Development activities:
1. Introduction of scientific agriculture
As far as domesticated biodiversity is concerned, the major impact is felt by the gene pool of traditional crops. For example, after the introduction of high response varieties of seeds, the traditional varieties of rice were threatened. The example of salt tolerant rice varieties of Goa can be given. There are more than 30 such salinity resistant, traditional, domestic rice varieties. Many of these are adapted races of the wild rice which was growing in coastal areas of Goa near the wetlands and marshes. The first farming communities experimented with this race of wild rice and domesticated the salinity resistant strains. These strains have been passed on from generation to generation over the past 3000 years. With the growing popularity of hybrid rice seeds and subsidised cultivation packages, there is a tendency to ignore the conservation of traditional rice strains.
Similarly with the case of another crop, the mango. The original diversity of mango cultivars is also under threat from a few wild strains of mango which were found in Goa. The Portuguese botanist experimented with different grafts and contributed to more than 100 additional cultivars. This is a big genetic wealth of Goa but there is very little awareness about conservation and popularisation of domesticated mango cultivars. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) at Old Goa in its monograph has documented 16 different cultivars of mango in Goa. Many of these mango cultivars are found in a few talukas and few villages which means that with the killing and cutting of those trees, the mango strains may be lost forever.
There is another dimension of the loss of domesticated crop biodiversity. Goa has a basket of traditional wild flowers, fruits and vegetables. Many of these are not systematically cultivated. Many strains of monsoon vegetables cultivated by molekars or kamatkars in Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona Talukas have not been conserved scientifically. For example, a small plot of local vegetables in Canacona Taluka may cultivate more than 20 different species of traditional vegetables. These are rarely seen in modern farms and urban markets. As a result of increasing pressures on the land and lack of incentives to conserve the wild germ-plasm, the domesticated crop biodiversity is likely to be lost in the near future.
2. Monoculture plantations and their impacts on habitats and biodiversity
The monoculture crops of Goa are cashew, coconut, Australian eucalyptus, arecanut, bananas, rubber, oil palm and mango. Of these, cashew, rubber and oil palm are exotic crop species. More than 50,000 hectares of land in Goa are under cashew plantation. It is often observed that cashew plantations have very less biodiversity as compared to similar mixed natural areas. The acidic and phenolic cashew litter is difficult to get naturally degraded. In eucalyptus plantations cultivated by the Forest Department, the species diversity is reportedly less. Monoculture plantations do not integrate positively within the natural ecosystems of which these are a part. A reduction in the diversity of habitats and species is a common impact associated with the promotion of monocultures in Goa.
3. Mining and Quarrying
A large part of Goa, about 6-7 percent of the geographical area, has been leased out for iron ore mining in the 20th century. Since biodiversity mapping exercises were not conducted before the operation of the lease, it is difficult to identify the type of wild biodiversity which has been listed in the mining belt. Some studies have identified metal tolerant plants in the mining areas.
Mining in Goa is open cast type with typical bench and slope configuration. It involves systematic removal of overburden by performing bench and slope method along hilltops and slopes, as iron ore deposits lie under a thick mantle of laterite. Mining operation involves drilling, blasting, ripping, dozing, loading, waste disposal sizing and washing of ores in benefication plants.
Impact Of Mining On Marine Environment:
The real impact of the mining activity seems to be the terrestrial and aquatic food chains. This impact is clearly visible in the Talukas of Bicholim, Sattari and Sanguem and in the estuarine zones. Principal features:
4. Impact due to Tourism
Mass tourism has left its significant impact on local ecosystems and habitats. The major impact is in coastal areas where the destruction of sand dunes has caused loss of wild biodiversity. Land reclamation in tourism areas has also destroyed the wild habitats of many animals, specifically of the pangolin or ant-eater, which is on the verge of local extinction. Tourism has also put pressure on the last surviving wild population of the Mugger (Crocodylus palustris) in the mangrove fringed Cumbarjua canal. Fisheries resources in the estuarine and marine areas have also been adversely affected. There are reports of hunting of dolphins and sea otters in the coastal waters. Illegal poaching of corals from marine islands is also a new activity endangering coral resources.
One graphic example could be the pressure on amphibian diversity. The Government of India in 1985 declared a ban on catching and killing of wild bull frogs which were hunted in the wild during monsoon. Catching, killing and consumption of the wild bullfrog was the common activity during monsoon in Goa despite the ban. The killing of wild frogs especially from coastal areas caused a tremendous imbalance in the local food chain. Since the wild frog consumed a large number of mosquito larvae, the natural control on mosquito population was lost. Since tourism influence encouraged exotic foods, suddenly there was a new demand from hotels for serving various preparations made from the wild frog. These preparations are locally popular as "jumping chicken". Traditionally these used to be cooked at domestic level but the demand from urban consumers and tourists resulted in the inclusion of "jumping chicken" in the menus of various hotels in coastal areas. This was the significant change induced by tourism related consumer based, ecologically destructive life style change. It is no doubt that wild frog population in Goa has decreased significantly whereas cases of malaria have gone up significantly.
5. Developmental Projects
The development and relative affluence of Goa has come at a price often subsidized by sacrificing wild habitats and species. A huge network of roads was built after liberation of Goa to connect even the remotest areas to the towns except for a small corridor along the Western Ghats that is inaccessible. Almost the entire forest area has been made accessible through a network of forest roads. Such road construction activity has fragmented the forest ecosystems, which has permitted colonization by non-local species. Besides roads, ecosystems get affected because of earth excavation for laying water links, electricity cables or telecom lines. Many of these communication-linked projects or infrastructural projects do not take into account their impact on ecosystem, habitat and species. The two medium irrigation projects: Anjunem in North Goa and Selaulim in South Goa submerged huge areas in the reservoir before any biodiversity impact assessment was made. Consideration of habitat loss and changes in species diversity are not taken into account in developing lands for big housing projects, bus stands, markets, play grounds, stadiums, etc. The wild biodiversity near urban areas is under tremendous pressure because of such land development activity.
6. The Growth of Industrial Estates
The industrial estates in Goa are generally spread over a large area, anywhere between 50 hectares to 500 hectares, selected on the basis of availability of the land at cheap rates and in so-called degraded condition. Most of the industrial estates are located in areas which were originally village commons. Many of these areas were orchards or common pastures. Thus industrial estates which exist on plateaus such as Verna, Pilerne, Kundaim, Sancoale have come up with the elimination of typical, tropical seasonal grassland ecosystems. With fragmentation of habitats, these areas have lost their wild biodiversity. Most of these plateaus were known for a large number of seasonal wild flowers and insects.
7. Industrialisation:
Rapid industrialisation has been another major problem, particularly in the vicinity of big towns and the industrial estates. Industrialisation has led to the replacement or substitution of goods made from renewable, locally available, and locally generated biological resources with goods from urban units.
8. Urbanization:
Another major cause of worry regarding the integrity of wild habitats & species in Goa is the rapid rate of urbanization. Urbanization is heavily impacting on the existing biodiversity in urban areas especially the existing tree endowment in these cities.
Urban areas or man made artificial ecosystems need to co-exist with the natural ecosystems. The life support systems within the urban areas of Goa are under considerable stress. Specifically, vulnerable habitats are the urban wet lands, the fringing mangroves, the khazans, paddy fields, the sand dunes, the intact water sheds, the urban springs and fountains and the natural water courses flowing through or passing by the urban areas of Goa. Urbanization is a very major driving force positively impacting on wild habitat and species in more than 30% of geographical area of the state.
III. Other factors:
1. Wild Life Poaching
Until banned by the Wild Life Protection Act, poaching of wild life was a tolerable practice in several parts of Goa. There were elaborate ‘ritual hunts’ or ‘Bhovni’, a traditional practice to chase and hunt wild animals in the name of local deities. Fire arms legally or illegally acquired are still popular in the forest areas of Goa and are still used to kill wild life. Although the official animal census of the Forest Department does not indicate the impact of wild life poaching on the population of large game, there are any number of local reports from the talukas of Sattari, Sanguem, Quepem & Canacona which clearly point to the popularity of wild meat among the locals and sanctification of such ecologically harmful practices by both the killers of wild life and the consumers of wild meat. Another problem that has been encountered is the use of explosives and booby traps to kill wild animals in forests.
There are certain illegal practices which are also impacting on the aquatic life e.g. the use of explosives such as gelatine, a common explosive substance used during the mining operations in Goa for the purpose of ‘blast fisheries’. Such dangerous activities are totally banned under the Indian Fisheries Act 1897 but are still popular in the villages close to mining areas and on the banks of the rivers like the Madei, Chapora, Khandepar, Kushavati or Bardori Sareli, Talpona, and Galgibag. Besides killing the fish, the explosives cause tremendous damage to the aquatic habitat and nearby vegetation.
2. The growing menace of exotic weeds
Although Goa is considered a tropical botanical garden on account of an interesting and economically useful integration of Indian and Continental flora, there was very little problem of exotic weeds suffocating the habitats and the ecosystems. Chemicalized agriculture promoted through government subsidies in the 70’s altered the ecological equation and balance. Heavy use of fertilizers like urea caused nutrient overloading in aquatic ecosystems.
There are 3 major aquatic weeds that are endangering the aquatic and agricultural ecosystems in Goa. These are (1) the water roses or Salvinia, (2) water cabbage or Pistia and (3) water hyacinth or Ecchornia. These three species grow very fast and choke up the ecosystem. Carpets of Salvinia and Pistia have become very common during the past 5 to 10 years and in almost all the water lakes and ponds. This is a sign of nutrient overloading and eutrophication.
Also spreading in the environment is the Parthenium weed, also from the compositae family.
What is true for the aquatic ecosystem is also true for the traditional ecosystem: the movement of goods vehicles carrying food grains along the national and state highways could be a likely cause of the emergence and spread of a dominant weed like Eupatorium species locally known as ‘ranmari This is also spreading in the forest areas where, after it has established itself, it does not allow other plants to grow.
The root causes of the loss in biodiversity are larger trends which are identifiable. However, it is not known how such trends could be reversed.
1. Changing Structures for Natural Resource Management
The major root cause is the change in the traditional natural resource management history. The village communities in Goa locally known as communidades or Gaonkars used to maintain their community natural resources for centuries. The code of communidades in 1961 elaborates the procedures for maintaining of the community’s natural assets. As long as the system delivered the goods there was very little impact on the wild or domesticated biodiversity.
The transaction from community based administration to the village panchayat based administration was not smooth. Within the same social and political space the village panchayats and the communidades had to struggle to co-exist. This led to confusion about the respective roles and responsibilities of these institutions in natural resources management.
The very complex nature of tenureship of land also complicated the problem of ecosystem, conservation habitat protection and species survival. Land reforms are still incomplete in Goa and have not realised their full potential. In fact, the Land to the Tiller Act (1964) -- also known as Agricultural Tenancy Act 1964 -- did not look at the problem of agricultural land resources and agricultural ecosystem management. Only attempts were made to resolve the issue of agricultural land ownership. The original ecological security ensured by the communidades, the private owners and other state holders was not continued after the government transferred the ownership of the cultivated lands to the tenants. Together with critical ignorance of the available natural assets and the indifference about interference with fragile ecosystems, the problem of habitat conservation and species survival has become complicated in Goa.
2. Improper Land Use
There are many role-players in the area of natural resource management. The most important Act is the Town & Country Planning Act, 1974, as amended, which has wide powers for surface utilisation of the State. Regional plans are prepared under this Act and some attention is paid to ecosystems and habitats but in practice there are frequent changes made in the original land use plans which cause tremendous loss to the habitats. There is also the problem of inappropriate land classification. For example, traditional pastures and vegetated areas and grasslands are combined under ‘orchards’. This is not supported by detailed biodiversity studies. Plateaus which are seasonal grasslands with less number of trees but more number of shrubs, grasses and other plants, are highly productive in biodiversity but their wrong classification as degraded lands often leads to habitat destruction and biodiversity erosion.
Thus, environmental and ecological concerns are not taken into account before permissions are granted for change of land use. Areas once rich in biodiversity have been converted as settlement areas or industrial areas. Especially in the coastal talukas of Goa, land use change is impacting heavily on the vulnerable habitats of terrestrial wildlife and on many critical species like the birds, the amphibians, the reptiles, the wild mammals, the beneficial insects and ecologically improved microbiota. One of the most serious problems one is the concrete jungles that crop up incessantly everywhere. These are particularly dangerous, since land use changes from one form of cultivation to another will have less impacts than this total loss.
As far as aquatic resources and ecosystems are concerned, the terrestrial land use change extends its impact directly or indirectly over these resources because the ecosystems are interdependent. Reclamation of mangrove and khazan lands near the estuaries has impacted the food chain in the estuaries and the breeding cycles of fish and shellfish. Again very few studies exist to pinpoint the exact nature of such impacts.
3. Lack of Coordination
In the area of biodiversity conservation there is no coordination between several government departments and this is one of the major reasons for habitat destruction and species loss. The Agricultural Department is supposed to make the best efforts to conserve agricultural lands and crop biodiversity but it does not raise its voice when agricultural lands are brazenly converted for non-agricultural purposes.
The Revenue Department administers the coastal khazan lands but it has no knowledge of the agricultural operations, credit resources or sources of income from land. The Fisheries Department has no knowledge of fisheries resources from the interior water resources. Such examples of departmental indifference are very common in Goa which makes the issue of biodiversity conservation a challenging problem for all stakeholders.
4. Decline or change in religious attitudes
The education system, the industrial and urban cultures based on rampant consumerism are eroding the religious values and traditions of significant and influential segments of the population. Knowledge of rituals and religious practice is on the decline and with this disappears the knowledge of biodiversity itself, since the use of various plants is intimately connected to ritual and festival. Uses of plants for different rituals and festivals is listed in Annexure 11.
5. Modern scientific methodology
There has developed over the years a complete schism between the modern scientific community and those with profound, in-depth knowledge of biodiversity and its uses. The fact that biodiversity has been maintained largely outside the framework of modern scientific institutions cannot be debated. Despite this fact, the conservation of biodiversity has been taken over by the scientific community which has imposed on it the regimen of Latin names. Knowledge of Latin names of plants is often seen as superior to knowledge associated with local names, even when the local name is always associated with knowledge of its uses.
The paramount problem generated by the application of modern scientific knowledge is that it is by nature reductionist. Thus, in its efforts to propagate its successful rice varieties and hybrids, it is compelled to displace indigenous rice varieties and cultivars on a spectacular scale. It conducts such displacement in other areas as well.
The cause of biodiversity would be well served if limitations are placed on the indiscriminate extension of scientific rationality and its products in those areas where there are already existing and perfectly valid knowledge frameworks already in place.
We have built certain scenarios on basis of the reports prepared by the Goa NBSAP team. On basis of such scenarios the threat perception is presented in summary form in Table 2.
Table 2 - Threats perception-ecosystems and biodiversity of Goa
| Type of Ecosystem | Existing and perceived Threats |
| Continental Shelf | Supertanker traffic, oil pollution, bilge washings, overfishing, depleting fisheries stocks, agricultural run-off, red-tides. Sediment plume with heavy metal oxides, clay colloids, sewage |
| Beaches and sand dunes (4000 hectares) |
Mass tourism, water sports, constructions, sand removal, solid waste, sewage discharges, dumping of constructional debris, exotic weeds, land levelling |
| Intertidal rock pools (Vagator, Anjuna, Palolem, Verem) | Oil pollution, solid waste, sewage |
| Estuarine islands (Tiswadi, Divar, Chorao, Jua, Cumbarjua, Corjuve, Capao, Rane’s Jua, Saint Jacinto) | Breaches in embankments, flooding, exotic weeds, dumping of waste, cutting of mangroves, destruction of watersheds |
| Marine islands (St. George, grande, pequeno) | Cutting of trees, fires, solid waste |
| Mangroves (2000 hectares, 9 tidal rivers) | Oil pollution, dumping of plastic waste, constructional debris, fire, deforestation and land reclamation, exotic weeds |
| Khazans (saline coastal paddy fields spread in 8 talukas over 17,000 hectares) | Damage to bundhs, sluice gates, flooding, illegal pisciculture,soil erosion, land filling and reclamation, solid waste dumping, scrapyards |
| Riverbanks and floodplains (about 5000 hectares) | Encroachments, blast fisheries, solid waste and sewage disposal, oil pollution |
| Lateritic grasslands (plateaus) | Deforestation, housing, industries, fires, exotic weeds |
| Forests (1250 sq. kms.) | Deforestation, mining, quarrying, dams, roads, kumeri cultivation, monoculture plantations, artificial breaks, exotic weeds, fires, floods, soil erosion, poaching |
| Myristica swamps in western ghats | Human interference, solid waste, fire |
| Lotic freshwater (rivers) | Alluvial sand mining, Sediment from mining rejects, high turbidity, oil, grease, heavy metals, nitrates, sewage, solid waste, blast fisheries |
| Lotic freshwater ( springs, fountains) | Watershed destruction, housing, industries, Washing of vehicles, sewage |
| Lentic freshwater(natural lakes) | Eutrophication, reclamation, encroachments, impact of religious practices (immersion of idols) |
| Caves (limestone, lateritic) |
Mining, slope instabilities, solid waste |
|
Salt pans (agors) |
Oil, PHC, heavy metals, sediments, solid waste, flooding, erosion |
| Wind blown cliffs | Deforestation, quarrying, constructions |
| Waterfalls | Quarrying, deforestation |
The DSTE, Govt. of Goa, has been promoting several projects, directly relevant to Biodiversity, in collaboration with various educational, research institutions including Goa University and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO).
A brief description / summary of such projects is as under:
1. Phytosociological studies of Goan vegetation with the help of aerial photographs, remote sensing technology and ground truth data, for mapping out medicinal, wild edible and threatened plant species.
Results: Thirty-three species of wild edible plants alongwith thirty-one species of medicinal plants have been enlisted and described. The report has also identified fourteen endangered plant species and has mapped the distribution of plant species studied.
2. Medicinal pants of Goa - Chemical examinations in search of bioactive compounds.
Results: The chemical extraction of the dried leaves yielded a compound (on purification) having the melting point of 780C, indicating it to be a mixture of stearic acid (A) and Stearyl alcohol (B). These two compounds were not reported earlier from any of the Uvaria species.
3. Survey, Screening & selection of metal tolerant native plant species for launching of an effective revegetation programme on Iron ore mines.
Results:
4. Survey and identification of edible mushrooms of Goa and assessment of their cultivation potential.
Results: Various species of mushrooms were collected and identified: Certain species were reported for the first time. Observations made during the mushroom survey have brought out the escalating danger to mushroom diversity of Goa on account of unregulated over-exploitation of prized species, land development, deforestation, soil erosion etc. in certain areas. It was recommended that certain traditional collection areas in the forests and the adjoining habitation of the villages of Tiswadi, Ponda, Sanguem, Bicholim, Satari, Canacona, Mormugao and Quepem talukas should be protected.
5. Survey, study and collection and documentation of Plant diversity of Goa.
Results:
The Department of Botany has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Forest Department to work on plant and fungal resources of Goa. Besides it has a well known plant herbarium, algal and mushroom collection and hundreds of fungal species in the unique culture collection facility, helping to conserve the microbial fungal and mushroom biodiversity ‘ex situ’. The University also has an Intellectual property rights (IPR) cell to address patent issues.
Fairly detailed studies of the wetlands and the avifaunal biodiversity which use these wetlands as habitats have been done by the Zoology Department of Goa University. Several individual faculties from various colleges affiliated to Goa University have also conducted specific biodiversity projects. For instance, Dr Manoj Borkar of the Bio-diversity research Cell of Carmel College, Nuvem has conducted research on the Marsh Crocodile or Mugger in Goa. Dr Phatak has done field studies on Wild Orchids. Dr. Kasturi Desai, PES College, Ponda has conducted research on Sand Dune Vegetation. Dhempe college Miramar, Panaji had judged the impact of the mining activity on the western ghats ecosystem of Goa and is presently engaged in mapping the diversity and use of shellfishes of Goa. Four senior teachers from this college have extensively worked to map freshwater algal diversity ( Dr. Hiremath), fouling algae and diatoms (Dr. Pangoo), marine diatoms (Dr. Kelkar), insects (Dr. Ganihar), generating useful knowledge on biodiversity. Information about all these studies is yet to be collated in any systematic manner by the University or the government agencies. However, a preliminary attempt has been made through the Goa SAP. Considerable expertise on local biodiversity lies untapped in the affiliated colleges. A case in point is the Biodiversity Research Cell (BRC) of the Carmel College for Women, Nuvem, Goa. The cell has an MOU with state and national organisations like NIO, ZSI, BNHS, ICAR and other such research organisations and has taken up the task of inventorising the biodiversity of the State. A considerable database on different elements of biodiversity such as butterflies, moths, spiders, fishes, birds and reptiles is available with the BRC. Baseline data on floristic biodiversity is also being generated and so far orchids, bryophytes, pteridophytes, and lichens have been inventorised. The cell is currently researching the spiritual tenets of biodiversity and in this regard surveyed the state for documenting traditional conservation practices of tribes and forest communities. Information is available on biodiversity of sanctified areas such as sacred groves. The Department of Botany at the Goa University has an ongoing programme on mycodiversity for which purpose a fungus culture facility has been established.
Goa state land use board:- A statutory board established to implement the centrally sponsored national land use policy. Though chaired by the Chief Secretary, it remains passive. More than Rs. 200 lakhs have been used by the Town and Country Planning department in the name of this Board to appoint staff, purchase hardware and software without coming out with any land resource management report.
Town and Country Planning Department, TCP board, NGPDA and SGPDA: Their decisions impact on the land-use and hence, ecosystems and corresponding biodiversity. These agencies are crucial to regulate urbanisation. However, they have succumbed to arbitrariness and corruption.
Government: (Central)