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LANDSLIDE AT SÃO PEDRO
Nature's Revenge

By Seby Rodrigues

...Ho thoim pavta mhunnsor, ghe udhok ekdom evpak laglem. Hanv dhanv-dhanv...mhojeo bobo 'Udhok ieta, udhok ieta'. Rajeshan (Sangodkar Super Market) shutter vhoddlem. Mhojem eka mhoineamchem cheddum aslem. Ghoran bhitor dhanvlom anim taka painneantlem ghevn dhanvlom...Rajeshachi bhail mhunno lagli, 'Hanga hadd teka' punn itlean udhik euvn sogllem lotton gelem. Zhaddam-peddam umttun, thoddim he matie pondak purovn, urlelim lotton sokkol eilim. Att dis zale...sogllo kochro-ghann kaddun-kaddun naka zalem. Atam amim ghara ieleanv torui punn ratchi jhem poddonam... (Sunil Naik's throat nearly choked as he recounted what happened at high noon on July 9 at Sao Pedro.)

AROUND mid-day on Sunday, July 9, this year, at Ribandar, a group of residents were watching idly the nearly 50-mt tall, thickly-wooded hillock, perched precariously beside a granite quarry almost as large as a football ground and nearly two coconut trees deep. Lightheartedly, they were wondering in which way they would escape in case the hill, soaked by the incessant rains, were to slide down. As if nature had heard them, the thickly wooded hillock trembled...there was a sudden rumble as if the hill was being rocked by an earthquake. And the stunned group actually witnessed mud, rocks and trees tumble into abandoned quarry.

With the impact of the sudden drop of the entire, heavy mass into the deep pit, every cubic meter of the water, which had filled it to the brim, leapt up. The water rushed down the slope in a sudden gush. Thirty-days-old Sushmita Naik and her tiny cradle would have been washed away, tearing the infant's body from its soul, if her awestruck father Sunil Naik hadn't had the presence of mind to sprint into the house and run away with the warm little bundle to safety.

Moments later, the water level in the house, nearly 150 metres away from the quarry, had reached 10 inches above the bed. The house, a wall of which had already cracked during the blasting operations at the granite quarry, is however, standing still. However, precious possessions, value at nearly Rs.1 lakh have been rendered useless by the flash flood.

En route, the sudden surge of water uprooted trees and washed them away along with two scooters, scrap tyres from the garage nearby and several things, which came in its path. It dug new and deep furrows sending the slush speeding downwards, across the Panjim-Old Goa road, through the building housing a Super Market, the Stoneage Marble shop and the bungalows, including the one belonging to a former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

The gushing, unnatural stream has also washed away the sides of the roads and uprooted trees beyond it. The grief-stricken residents wonder whether the road is strong enough to bear the heavy, continuous traffic load anymore. Mercifully, the incessant rains have subsided. But the occupants of the three or four houses still fear that it's resumption may bring down the loosened mud, which still looms large at a handsome height.

"She had never seen such a tragic event in her life. There was a terrible impact on her mind. She saw people running down and water too rushing down. She heard the people screaming, 'Dhanva re, dhanva re', with children and the little belongings they could lay their hands on before speeding away from the unforseen danger. She suddenly collapsed," says Rajesh Sangodkar, the young and enterprising owner of the Sangodkar Super Market at Sao Pedro, while describing the fateful day's events, recounting what had happened to his wife Ramila, who was attending to a customer at the store at that time. It took Ramila over a month to recover from the traumatic incident. She would suddenly awaken in the middle of the night and weep inconsolably.

They have crossed with a pen the fateful noon of July 9 (Ashad Shu.7) on the calendar hanging on the shop's wall. It has brought immense loss, due to the damage to the perishable goods in his shop shelves and the low lying godown. The godown doors were smashed open by the torrent of water, even pushing open the steel shutters at the lowest end. There is a heavy truck tyre, which had rolled down into godown. It took them an awful effort to clear out all the rubbish that had flowed in with the water.

On hearing about the mishap the former chief minister of Maharashtra drove down with a retinue of nearly 25 cars, along with the police of Maharashtra and Goa.

Well, this is not the only mishap. Two more quarries could also be the venues of identical contingencies. The government authorities do not seem to pay much heed to the catastrophe. Eventually, ecology and conservation of nature has not been the priority of the Goa government, whose ministers keep changing like seasons every few months.

Twenty-five-year-old Ramila Sangodkar who had fainted, 65-year-old Govind Bodko Naik who was down with shock...the children who screamed, women and elders panicked...when nature released its fury against man's greed...Some of the politicians rushed to console them as they are used to doing in such contingencies. Former Revenue Minister Mauvin Godinho even made the statement in the Assembly on July 12 stating that the goverment agrees in principle to pay the compensation to the affected villagers. He also assured the house that the matter would be taken up with the quarry owner to release the compensation amount. They'll get a paltry compensation no doubt but what about the damge that nature and ecology suffer?

According to some observers in the area, the phenomenon struck the village because of the massive construction of buildings on the Kadamba plateau, leading to the diversion of the water from its traditional path to the Sao Pedro side. Complicating the issue was the poor drainage system along the road, which obstructed the smooth flow of the water towards the river.