HC stays Morjim beautification work over green concerns
The high court on Tuesday ordered an immediate stay on the beautification work being carried out on Morjim beach through Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The HC issued a notice to govt after a petitioner showed the court pictures purportedly of the site where sand dunes were being destroyed with heavy machinery.
Captain Gerald Fernandes, a former Indian Army officer and resident of Morjim, filed the PIL seeking urgent intervention of the HC to halt the ongoing work at the ecologically sensitive Morjim beach.
This site is an officially designated turtle nesting area for the endangered
olive ridley turtles
, safeguarded under the Wildlife Protection Act and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011.
Fernandes, represented by advocate Om D'Costa, submitted to the HC that the beach beautification project, valued at Rs 9.8 crore by GTDC, is proceeding without mandatory statutory approvals and without a construction licence from the panchayat.
The flattening of the sand dunes on the beach is being carried out, the plea said.
The development activity poses an imminent and irreparable threat to the turtle nesting habitat, sand dunes, and natural ecosystem of Morjim beach, the plea said. The panchayat and Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority granted NOCs in apparent disregard of the site's protected status and its proximity within 200 metres to the high tide line, Fernandes submitted to the division bench comprising justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta.
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Fernandes, who is a recipient of Goa govt's wildlife conservation award for protecting the olive ridley habitat at Morjim, has also been recently nominated by the HC to the noise monitoring committee.
He stated that beaches and their attendant sand dune vegetation are beautiful in themselves and don't need concrete props from any external agency. 'In fact, the sand dunes and sand dune vegetation have major ecological functions and provide ecosystem services,' Fernandes submitted to the HC.
He said, 'The project proponent is actively committing to destroying Goa's natural tourism assets instead of protecting them.'
GTDC has been involved in launching a similar project to beautify Baina beach at Vasco, which was cancelled by the HC. A second beach beautification project at the same location a decade later was also cancelled on the grounds of violation of the CRZ notification, which is pending before the Supreme Court after GTDC challenged it, Fernandes said.
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