HC stays road project leading to Goa waterfall until wildlife board’s nod

THE COURT’S ORDER CAME AFTER HEARING A PLEA ON DECISION OF GOA PWD TO CONSTRUCT THE ROAD

PANAJI: Tourism exists for (benefit of) protected areas and not vice-versa, and demands for having one must be subservient to conservation interests, the Bombay High Court in Goa observed on Wednesday, as it stayed the construction of an ‘all weather’ road leading to the world-famous Dudhsagar Falls which is currently only connected via a kutcha road.

The court’s observation came while hearing a plea filed by an environmental NGO, the Goa Foundation, challenging the decision of the Goa Public Works Department (PWD) to pursue the construction of a paved road leading up to the falls.

The bench, comprising justipurpose ces M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar, said that besides regular annual repairs, all other works proposed by the PWD “ought not to proceed until the final disposal of this petition or until respondents obtain necessary approval from NBWL (National Board for Wildlife), whichever is earlier.”

“From the material placed on record, at least prima facie, the CWW (Chief Wildlife Warden) has not considered whether such a project is necessary for the of PA (protected area). Rather, the material on record, prima facie, suggests that the project is mostly to cater to almost 4.5 lakhs tourists that visit the Dudhsagar Waterfalls by using the existing kutcha road,” the order read.

The Goa government had embarked on the project to upgrade the existing kutcha road into an all-weather road usable throughout the year, in the second week of August. The project involves replacing the kutcha road surface with lateritic soiling with murram duly compacted and laying interlocking pavers over a 15 cms bed of cement and concrete. The project also involves providing cross drains, ramps, parking bay, retaining walls, culverts, crash barriers and random rubble masonry.