RAHUL BUYS PUPPIES FROM GOA!

RAHUL Gandhi made his special 2-day  visit to Goa to pick up two Jack Russell terrier puppies from a dealer in Mapusa. Jack Russell terrier puppies are a very rare species of small dogs. Shivani Pitre and husband Stanley Braganca, owner of Animal Kingdom in Mapusa, is the only supplier who imports the Jack Russell terrier puppies into the country. We are happy to note that Rahul Gandhi loves puppies instead of poaching politicians.

POWER BREAKS

ALL of us must have noticed that power is interrupted very often for five to ten minutes, especially in the Carazalen area in capital city Panaji. This happens when there is a shift from the southern grid to the northern grid. Goa does not have any power generation source of its own. It gets its power from the national grid from a distance, thermal and hydro projects set up thousands of kilometers away out of Goa. The power is routed through high-voltage transmitters located at intervals till it is connected to the Goa grid. Power breakdowns are not the same as power shut-downs. Shutdowns are due to internal problems in the power network such as a break in the overhead transmission lines or the bursting of a transformer. This may take several hours to rectify depending on the seriousness of the problem.

FAKE TOURISM POST

FACEBOOK is full of posts which say nasty things about Goan tourism. These posts talk about Goa being unsafe for women due to the widespread use and abuse of drugs. The approach roads to the beaches do not have adequate lighting and this makes foreign tourists moving up and down vulnerable to assault. There are also a number of posts claiming that accident rates are high and the condition of the roads is very poor. The Tourism Department is concerned over these posts which in the long run affect Goa’s image as a tourism destination. Now the Cyber Security Department has been asked to remove such fake posts from Facebook.

IRON ORE RESOURCE

THE iron ore output in Goa has been estimated at 1000 million tons. The amount of ore that has been mined up to March 31, 2021 is 263.7 million tons. Apparently, there are no proper records maintained in the Directorate of Mines. In theory, a limit is imposed on the amount of ore that can be extracted so that future generations will not be deprived of revenue from the source. In practice, no such conditions are imposed. During the Chinese Olympics, the mining companies extracted ore much beyond their authorized capacity. Due to the steep increase in ore prices because of  the Olympics, mining companies made bumper profits. However, Goan mine companies no longer find it viable to operate the ore mines. They may have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. All the older leases have been cancelled and even existing companies have to bid for the leases designated. Mining is expected to start by end 2023, perhaps November or December.

GI TAG FOR MANKURAD

THE Goan bebinca sweet and mancurad mango have been finally en allotted their geographical index tag. What this means is that the two items are now exclusive to Goa. No other state or country can make “bebinca” or grow “mankurad” mango or at least call it by the names. This is similar to scotch being identified with Scotland. Applications have been made for the inclusion of the Agassaim brinjal and seven-ridged okra (bendi) to the list. The large Goan brinjal and bendi or lady’s fingers are unique to Goa.

SUSPENSION OF COPS

THE act of suspending cops by the State government and the Police department is more of a joke. Every time there is a serious accident or incident, to satisfy public opinion some constable and even police officers are suspended. When public attention is no longer there the suspension orders are revoked. Of the 95 cops suspended in four years 79 have been reinstated.  Of the six PSIs who were suspended two faced rape charges. Six police man including an ISI and head constables were suspended as they have created riots at restaurants in Porvorim over payment of food bills.   The orders of senior police officers are seldom obeyed. A police constable asked by a constable to shave off his beard was  suspended till he complied. The constable had not obeyed the police inspector’s instructions and had instead had abused his superior and that led to his suspension.

GOA BE CAUTIOUS!

THERE are systematic attempts all over the country to create communal tensions between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Major communal riots broke out in Haryana following clashes during a Muharram possession. Among the worst affected has been Gurgaon city in Haryana which is the corporate capital of India. There are over a hundred multinationals that have their offices in Gurgaon, a modern city with expensive houses, excellent roads, good infrastructure. Most companies in Gurgaon have asked their employees to work from home. Children stopped going to school for a week when the riots broke out on July 31 and were provoked by the Bajrang Dal members in various parts of Haryana activists, wherever there a Muharram procession was on.

Goa is perhaps the only state in the country which has never witnessed such communal riots. There was only an isolated incident in Gudemal in Curchorem in 2006. Local Hindus objected to the use of a housing board flat as a madrassa. False rumors were spread by saffron brigade members  about  thousands of armed Muslims from Karnataka entering Goa. The shops of Muslims were targeted by  Hindus owing allegiance to the Hindutva brigade. Though several people were arrested they had to be set free following the intervention of the late chief minister of Goa,  Manohar Parrikar.

Goa has a large Muslim population and there is always the risk of young people being instigated. Even a small incident like a stone thrown from a terrace  during a Hindu zatra can trigger    communal rioting. The Muslim community in Goa should not get into a confrontation with extremist right-wing organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or similar outfits.

RIBANDAR CAUSEWAY

THE riverside concrete road and the Ponte De Linhares bridge which connected the former Portuguese capital Old Goa to Panaji have been sinking. The bridge has endured happily for more than 400 years but has been now giving up its ghost. The bridge has been closed for commercial vehicles as well as local buses. The bridge is a heritage structure and needs to be restored with the help of Portuguese experts. The bridge is over 3km long and runs parallel to the Mandovi river and is surrounded by salt pans. Unlike the new bridges built this Portuguese time causeway has ducts to keep control over the incoming and outgoing tides, a feat of engineering perhaps now known to today’s engineers.

THE GOAN AGNIVEERS

IT may be recalled that the Modi government introduced a scheme for recruiting 10th-standard pass young people for serving in the armed forces for a period of four years. Among the many training centers were the military training regiments in Navelim. The first batch of 1,400 recruits who underwent training in Navelim have passed out and will now be posted in the technical branch of the regiments in Bambolim and Ponda for advanced military training.   

CONVICTION STAYED, RAHUL BACK IN LS!

THE Supreme Court on Aug 4, 2023 restored Wayanad Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi’s seat. Gandhi was removed from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in the Surat case to two years imprisonment in a defamation case. The Election Act mandates automatic disqualification of an MLA who has been convicted for two years. The case in question here related to a stray remark made by Rahul Gandhi asking if the Modi surname was common for crooks in one of his talks.

Taking objection to this he was hauled up in the Surat session court where the judge convicted him for two years imprisonment in a case to do with defamation. The case came up in Supreme Court for justice and the SC stayed the conviction and directed Rahul Gandhi to return to Parliament. Maybe the Jack Russell terrier puppies the Gandhi scion picked up this week from Goa have brought him some doggy luck.

CONSERVE `ROEN ALAMI’!

SEE those wild mushrooms selling here and there in Goa come the monsoon months? August and September are peak months when the Goan wilderness is raided wholesale and mushroom hunters steal and sell this wild “roen alami” mushrooms  belonging to Genus Termitomyces (naturally found since 120 million years and grown strictly by termites on  fungus mound of “roen” building  termites).

So exploited are these seasonal wild edible mushrooms that they are plucked from pristine areas, poached from State government wildlife sanctuaries and private forests…and sold in leafy bundles by the roadside outside markets and at vantage points at fabulously premium prices from Rs700 to Rs1,000 plus, plus for 25 to 50 or  mushrooms.

 However, now there is an appeal going out that people stop stealing these wild mushrooms from the forests – otherwise in the future there will be no mushrooms! These  rare wild species play very important role as a powerful biodegrading fungus in forest and grassland ecosystems, converting about 50% per cent dead plant material on ground into rich fertile soil and by releasing micronutrients.

 Without this fungus the termite hills, considered sacred by Goans can’t degrade dead forest biomass which they bring inside the mounds to grow this species. Besides these mushrooms automatically destroy litter inhabiting viruses carrying vectors hiding in dead organic matter in forest and thus may keep away diseases affecting humans.  Especially ticks which carry KFDV or Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus.

The general public must be made aware that like several crops and fruits which can be cultivated artificially, these species dependent exclusively on their mentor termites cannot be artificially cultivated and produced on mass scale by humans for their consumption. Such a task has been considered impossible by scientists and its universal convention that wild species which can’t be domesticated need to be left intact in their wild habitats for natural regeneration. Market forces may not overexploit and destroy these gene pools.

Scholars say that if we, the people, keep on exploiting the roen alami – we will lose out on both the mushrooms as well as the complex biodegradation-based ecosystem services provided by the termites by cultivating the enzyme rich fungus. Out of the 90 species found in the world, the Western Ghats has 35-40 species, forms and varieties of Termitomyces mushrooms cultivated by termites.

 Members of public and local BMCs need to prevent destruction of termite mounds and controlled and unregulated plundering of these species. GSBB fears that overexploitation of these ecologically important mushrooms, considering the very young and immature stages sold in markets, may also destroy the natural quarantines of unknown zoonotic viruses and release quarantined new forest diseases. We are already battling with viruses, the latest being  Covid-19.

The message going out is leave the fungus intact. The world over scientists are researching these mushroom species to find new drugs and pharmaceuticals and are worried about overexploitation of rare species. All this information comes from a concerned Dr Nandkumar Kamat, microbiologist, internationally known on Termitomyces mushrooms. He is PhD guide of Goa University and former  consultant, Microbial Biodiversity, GSBB, and authority on wild mushroom diversity of Goa with 35 years of research experience, who has taught virology for 30  years. His warning going out loud and strong here is we ourselves may be responsible for the next pandemic which may likely originate from the Western Ghats — if we persist in destroying our forest ecosystems! Traditionally, what our forest dwellers have conserved, modern-day gourmands must not destroy. The wildlife protection Act, 1972 ensures protection to these wild mushrooms and if anyone is caught stealing them from the wild they are liable to be prosecuted. You are warned.