GOA

After Kerala and Uttarakhand, Goa has the third highest per hectare growing stock in forest in the country, as per the India State of the Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 of the Forest Survey of India.
Growing stock refers to the volume of all living trees in a particular forested area, and higher per hectare growing stock indicates a highly-sustainable and productive forest.

Higher per hectare growing stock also shows the forest is providing good ecosystem service in acting as a .
It is also a forest of higher economic value. The volume of living trees in Goasforestsper hectare is almost double the national figure.

The ISFR 2021 report has indicated that by 2030, 671 sq km or nearly 30% of Goas forest and tree cover are likely to experience high severity impact of Climate-change”>Climate Change. This means temperatures are expected to rise by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the state, while there will be variation of 20 to 26% in the rainfall pattern.

Months before the Karnataka polls, the Centre has approved a modified detailed project report (DPR) of the Kalasa-Bhandura (canal) drinking water project, which was one of the key poll promises made by BJP in Karnataka during the 2018 assembly . The DPR, which was approved despite objections from Goa, comes as a setback to Goas efforts to stop Karnataka from diverting Mhadei water.

While Goa CM Pramod Sawant tried to make Light of the latest development, his political opponents and environmentalists see the development as a fresh hurdle in the states efforts to contain the neighbouring states claim on the Mhadei.

According to Bommai, 1.72tmcft of water will be diverted from Kalasa stream and 2.18tmcft from Bhandura stream. The project will end the water crisis in Dharwad, Belagavi, Gadag and Bagalkot districts in North Karnataka.

Karnataka accordingly submitted the pre-feasibility report of the Kalasa and Bhandura diversion schemes on June 17, 2022, to the Cwc for technical appraisal. The DPR of the Kalasa project was submitted on November 23 and that of the Bhandura project on November 28, 2022.

The CWC, in its memorandum to Karnataka, also mentioned that environmental flow may be released as stipulated in the Tribunals award. It instructed the project authority to communicate the information related to the daily withdrawal of the Mhadeis waters by the regular basis-to-basin states, and also underscored the need for the constitution of the Mahadayi Water Management Authority.

As part of the ongoing nationwide campaign to pledge organs, theState Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation(SOTTO) Goa and Student Council of Goa Medical College on Monday pitched in its support.
GMC dean and nodal officer of the transplant programme of Goa, Dr S M Bandekar released a quick response (QR code) to make a pledge as an organ donor.
A single donor can save eight lives through organ donation and the Quality Of Life of 75 persons can be improved through tissue donation.

Poor , the lack of a grievance redressal mechanism, and erratic power supply saw Goa faring badly in the fourth LEADS (Logistics Ease Across Different States) 2022 report on Thursday. In the report released by theCommerceand Industry ministerPiyush Goyal, Goa has been placed the last category along with 15 other states and union territories.

Among the nine coastal states Goa has been graded as an aspirer along with West Bengal.

The state has scored below Average across all the indicators related to quality of infrastructure. As per primary interactions, Warehousing and terminal infrastructure needs improvement. The state has been rated below average on all other indicators related to reliability of logistics Services. Similarly, the state has also scored below average with regards to all the operating and Environment indicators.

TheLogistics Divisionof theMinistry of Commerce and Industryworked on the report along with Ernst & Young LLP.

Goa has been witnessing tarball deposits on its beach stretches since the 1970s. But from around 2004, the frequency of their appearance has increased, with the residue seen almost every summer and monsoon period on different coastal stretches.

Last year, thestatehad submitted a report to the Union Environment ministry and is still awaitingsolutionto this issue. State environment minister Nilesh Cabral has already stated that the phenomenon is due to movement of oil tankers. He said that the submitted its report to the Union ministry for environment, forest and Climate-change”>Climate Change and is discussing ways on how to address the issue.

The tourism department is worried as the tarballphenomenon is severe this time and is affecting major beaches of North Goa and some in South.

Goa is the only state to have an oil spill disaster contingency plan, but marine microbiologists said that quicker action is required to remove tar balls when they appear. Because of their nature tar balls block Oxygen to sediments and Soil and harm marine biota and in-turn the whole marine food chain gets disturbed.

Marred by delay in allocation of funds and faulty prioritisation of projects, the Centres ambitiousSmart City Missionappears to have floundered in Goa. Five years afterPanajiwas put on the fast track to smartness on the basis of a Rs 608.4 crore planned outlay, theUnion ministry of housing and urban affairs(MoHUA) said that just Rs 16.2 crore has been spent till date on 10 projects, most of them being beautification works.

The Centre also said that seven big ticket projects worth Rs 330 crore are about to be awarded to contractors while two projects worth Rs 40 crore are likely to be tendered in the coming weeks. The information was given by the minister of state Kaushal Kishore in a written reply inRajya Sabha.

As per the MoHUA website, Goa has transferred Rs 113 crore to IPSCDL till date as its share towards the Smart City Mission.

Making a case for formulation of a bird habitat management plan for the state, three senior birders from Goa have jointly stated in their written submission on the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) that as several bird habitats havent been identified in the maps, the areas must be identified, protected and managed to ensure the persistence of the bird species and their populations.

Pointing out that only one bird nesting area, Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary at Charao, is marked along the entire coastline of Goa, they said that though this is an important area for birds, as highlighted by its protected status, there are many other parts of Goas coastline that require identification.

It is extremely important that a management plan specific to bird habitats for nesting, foraging, roosting and wintering is drafted and implemented. These areas also have a huge potential for well managed eco-tourism zones, Pronoy Baidya, Farai Patel and Omkar Dharwadkar said in their written submissions.

In a major boost to hinterland tourism in the state, Goa has witnessed over 50% rise in domestic tourists and 1,000 times increase in international tourists in the four Western Ghats bordering talukas – Sattari, Canacona, Dharbandora and Sanguem.

Government data shows that in 2021, over 65,000 domestic and over 1,300 international tourists explored Goa’s hinterland, while in 2022, over 1.1 lakh domestic and over 14,000 foreigners visited the areas

The has invited agencies to conceptualise tours and trails in Goa like nature trails, architecture tours, heritage trails, village walks, spiritual trails and bird watching trips to further boost hinterland tourism, the officer said. The government is also keen to conceptualise camping, bike tours, food and culinary tours, brewery tours and so on to bring out the unexplored tourism aspects and various points of interest in Goa. It wants to market and promote the experiential tours through various channels for popularising these tours among tourists, agents and channel partners in both domestic and international markets. Goa has over 70 big and small waterfalls.