‘Save Mollem’ campaign
Context: The ‘Save Mollem’ campaign has drawn in everyone from celebrities to politicians, protesting the lack of assessment of the threats posed by three proposed infrastructure projects.
What is the issue?
- The dense evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Mollem at the edge of the Western Ghats, 60 km from Goa’s capital Panaji, support thousands of indigenous people and abound with a huge diversity of wildlife: tigers, leopards, gaur, and over 200 species of birds.
- There is a growing scientific consensus that linear projects like power transmission lines have harmful effects on wildlife. For instance, power lines “act as barriers to movement, with many animals avoiding even narrow clearings”.
- They disrupt ecological processes and gene flow and affect seed dispersal and disease dynamics.
Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary
- It is a protected area located in the Western Ghats of West India, in Goa State, along the eastern border with Karnataka.
- National Highway 4A divides it into two parts.
- It contains several important temples dating to the Kadambas of Goa, and home to waterfalls, such as Dudhsagar Falls and Tambdi Falls.
- The parkland is also home to a community of nomadic buffalo herders known as the Dhangar.
- This area was first known as Mollem Game Sanctuary.
- It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1969 and renamed as Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary.
- The core area of the sanctuary covering 107 square kilometres (41 sq mi) was notified as Mollem National Park in 1978.
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