Nov 27 – A team from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is down in Goa in view of the request made by Goa government to drop several villages from the list of Environmentally Sensitive Areas. The team will visit the villages requested by Goa government to be dropped from the list of ESA. MoEFCC had recently issued a draft notification to declare 108 villages of Goa as ESA. The Goa government has urged Centre to drop 21 villages from this list. Speaking to media, Environment Minister Alexio Sequiera said that the team will have discussion with the government officials tomorrow and the final decision will be taken by MoEFCC. He said that the declaration of ESA will not affect the normal life of the people in that area. However, activities like mining will be banned within ESAs which may trigger shortage of minor minerals like laterite stones and sand, he added.
