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Gang rape of Altinho
Ethel da Costa
Was it God’s wrath or Nature stomping her foot down,
but in recent times the earth has been moving under the feet of
sleepy Altinocars. It doesn’t spell very good for those living down
under, but Altinho roars. And has she got them up and running breathless,
some with tail behind the hind legs.
Goa’s version of Beverly Hills -- once beautiful with cashew trees,
wild berries, guava, amla and fruits in the wild and the source of rich
mineral water to the city’s wells -- is today under siege. Literally.
She’s been persistently making notorious headlines. Some not so
fashionable in recent months. But where the devil plays, sin is bound
to follow.
I would think its time Altinho belched all the wrong doings heaped upon
her, after standing years of abuse. She’s been ravished and molested (and
pun intended please). I would think its time she shrugged her shoulders
(like Atlas) and heaved the load off her chest, a weight pressing her down
and going berserk ever since the construction lobby raped her hillsides,
repeatedly, to make their booty off this fragile
hill. They have looted and exploited her, without even a `thank you
ma’am’ for their sins of commission. And she will haul the load fast, if
the checks and balances are not put into place immediately.
I took a drive around Altinho recently. Suffice to say, I came back
home utterly disappointed and horrified. Her verdant greens had fast
replaced concrete boxes. Garbage lay un-picked on certain points of the
road. The slum like structures around her banks were expanding with more
humanity and rubble, no proper drains meant water running speedily into
crevices, chock-a-block construction – like a beauty tethering on
high heels waiting for a shove to push her down to reality. From the
look of things – landslides have become a frightening regularity this
monsoon – Altinho might end down faster than the Mandovi bridge of the
80s.
I am not the least surprised that Altinho should decide to teach us a few
lessons. I’m glad that she’s finally taking her fate into her hands, by
deciding to call the shots. Like a woman wronged who’s lost faith in the
man who’s promised to protect her, Altinho is extracting its price for
abuse.
Long considered the residential domain of the high and mighty, the
wealthy, the powerful, the religious and the corrupt, the hill has been
sitting on a time bomb, now intent on exploding. Should this set off a
panic alarm? But of course it should. Didn’t we know this was coming all
along?
We agree that Altinho has a checkered history of corruption, having
been the seat of political powers that be. Like water finds its own level,
corruption must always precede a minister groveling at the sight of
big money (now they come street smart savvy). Altinho has witnessed the
rise and fall of Goa’s soul sellers. So the weight is bound to crack her
up. And it’s doing exactly that.
Two years back, environmental activist, Dr Claude Alvares in a PIL
to the High Court complained that frequent land conversion on the
hill slope was in total violation of development regulations. Underworld
tainted, Bharat Shah was then making inroads into Goa, having set his eyes
on 8000 sq mts of land on Altinho’s fragile hillside for the purpose of
constructing a four-storeyed commercial complex. The petition
accused the Town and Country Planning Board for dropping the ban on
construction on hill slopes, by allowing construction in the area reserved
as nature reserves and conservation zones.
Two years later, the
Town and Country Planning board and the PWD still remains the most corrupt
departments in Goa.
I distinctly remember the Chief
Minister, Mr Parrikar stating that the board had since been instructed
to reverse its decision and stall construction projects. I quote him:
“I will never allow such a thing to happen in my constituency.”
Many cement bags have been poured into mortar since those mighty words of
wisdom. Abetted by crooked politicians, the builder’s lobby have been
laughing all the way to the bank. Not satisfied with their senseless rape
of our green cover, they have now been actively participating in an orgy
of construction on our beach sides, reclaiming our low laying areas and
mangroves. And still laughing all the way to the bank!
Altinho has seen periodic hue and cries from her residents and a motley
band of conservationists who slink away as fast as the proverbial greased
palm. The die-hards like Dr Joe D’Souza (who I’ve known
through years of journalism at the Herald and then the Insight), has
repeatedly rang the alarm bells -- sometimes to deaf ears
-- that repeated cutting of the hill will cause environmental damage, a
disturbance in the flow of rainwater during the monsoons, and erosion of
soil due to
destruction of existing vegetation. He has been crying hoarse in vain, in
person and in print.
Unfortunately, what we chose
to ignore, has come to truth now.
The landslides, I’m sure we know,
are the result of depletion in the forest cover which normally
functions as a sponge to hold water. According to geological studies, the
topography of a hill slope usually consists of two nonporous layers of
rock, which are sandwiched by aquifers consisting of loose mud. During
frequent construction activity, fissures that are created allow the rain
water to wash away the mud which forms the aquifer layer. As a result, a
void is created between the two nonporous layers of rock. With time, the
top layer cracks and forms boulders. Subsequent monsoons later, these
boulders come crashing down, leading to the current landslides. Not that
it has stopped politicians from exploiting Goa’s yo-yo stand on
conservation (because we have no consistent, vociferous voice to stop this
carnage), by allowing land conversions for personal profit. It is this
indifference that has allowed builders and politicians to butcher the hill
with their grandiose ideas of shopping malls and commercial complexes, in
spite of a prohibition to construct on hill slopes with gradient above 10
per cent.
So, where lies the graveyard of Altinho? At the foot of Mala or Fontainhas,
surely.
Because even the cosmetic surgery in the form of bunds or retaining walls
to give solace to the victims -- as in the case of Celina Almeida’s house
on Fr Agnelo road, Altinho -- will do temporarily little good. Although
lakhs of rupees have been spent by the Goa government to put the retaining
walls on either side of the hill i.e., near Maruti temple and Fr Agnelo
road in alternate years, precious little has been achieved as witnessed.
As Mother Nature has been raped on both sides of the hill, the people on
either side of the hill have been subjected to her persistent fury.
Add the fact that incessant flooding in the capital is also adding to the
hill’s demise, since most of the city’s drainage systems are choked with
construction debris, and all the low laying areas and mangroves have been
reclaimed, thus leaving no choice but to let rain water seep inside the
soil or find its own destructive level. A Catch-22 situation of our own
doing, despite the lakhs of rupees in tax-payers currency spent annually
on supposedly clearing up the capital’s drains (herein lies another story,
but for later). It is a sad reality that with the rape of the hill,
incidences of malaria and enteric diseases are also on the rise, due to
water stagnation. It’s also a paradox that Altinho hill, which could have
been used as a water shed to supply water to Panjim, is today a source of
Nature’s wrath.
I have no faith that a speedy solution can be found to this malady.
When our entire approach to tackling this problem, despite assurances
given by our `friends in power’, have been hollow, for want of a better
word. I know some Ponjecars living in Fontainhas are furious that their
houses could be snowed under with the sins committed on Altinho. Not that
their immediate neighbours above have a better view of things to come. But
what do they say about `What goes around, must come around’?
It’s pay back time. Altinho shows
that she’s had enough.
Ethel da Costa
August 25, 2003
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