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COMING SOON !
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* Oh Raul !
Kattor re bhaaji TGF readers' bulletin board
I spent a week in the Madeira archipelago. It is a province of Portugal in the Atlantic. The islands were first occupied by the Portuguese (especially of Italian origin, such as Zarco and Prestrello) The population does not exceed 500,000 inhabitants.
It is only in the last 25 years, that is, after the fall of Salazar regime that the island has developed tremendously into a tourist paradise. One small island called Porto Santo has excellent beaches, but the main island of Madeira hasonly black-sanded beachy patches. Most of the island has deep rocky falls. The tourist attractions are the varied sceneries and sharp climatic contrasts of the plains and mountainous heights that reach 1810 metres with clouded tops.
What Goa could learn is the way Madeira bananas (up to 300 metre heights), vineyards (from 300 to 500 metres), oranges, etc (from 500 to 800 metres), and the eucaliptus and cacti flora above 800 metres flourish with water saved from scanty rains into reservoirs and utilized for generating 30% of its electricity and for irrigation and drinking. Incidentally, Madeira has no rivers nor much possibility of boring wells. The canal-network called "levadas" totals nearly 4500 kms, of which 2.500 is State-owned. Incidentally, lands above 800 metres are State-owned.
I spoke to the Indian Ambassador in
Lisbon, Mr. S.K. Bhatnagar, a veteran career diplomat, about my impressions. He too appears keen to obtain more information that could
help Goa (where floods of rain water run into the sea and rivers) and some other parts of India to gain from Madeira experience, and Madeira
too could import cheaper India-made generators to produce more power with its scarce water resources.
Teotonio R. de Souza
August 1999