By Matters India Reporter
Panaji, June 4, 2022: A Catholic college in Goa marked the western Indian state’s 35th statehood day by launching a mangrove conservation project.
Goa was made a state in India on May 30, 1987.
St. Joseph Vaz College in Cortalim, 17 km south of the state capital of Panaji, launched the conservation project under the guidance of Father Bolmax Fidelis Pereira, a botanist and noted environmentalist in Goa. The college was joined by Nisarga Nature Club, Chicalim Youth Farmers Club and Goencho Ekvott (Goan Unity).
Some 70 volunteers, mostly students, collected around 1,100 mangrove saplings from the bunds near the old Sancoale Church and planted them along the riverbank at Bondeabhatt Sancoale in the Zuari Bay.
The yearlong conservation project will be carried out across Goa to prevent soil erosion, increase mangrove cover and protect coastal ecology, Father Pereira explained.
He said the mangroves also serve as breeding nurseries for various fish and shell species and other marine species.
He also explained the importance of the mangroves and highlighted the threats faced by mangroves because of unsustainable and haphazard development and road widening in Goa.
The students urged the public to join the yearlong program to protect their coasts from various natural disasters propelled by climate change.