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Chimbel Up in Arms to Save Wetland
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Chimbel Up in Arms to Save Wetland

Cover October 11, 2025 , by

By Praveena Sharma

Call for the proposed Unity Mall and Prashasan Stumbh projects to be nixed; want a Biodiversity Park around Toyyar lake

Recently, when the 12,000-sqm Unity Mall and the 17-storey Prashasan Stumbh (administrative building) were announced in the Chimbel village by the State government, it was a repeat of 2018 for its residents.
Like in the past, they began preparing for a fight against the government to save their wetland – Toyyar lake – which has been notified by the Goa State Wetland Authority (GSWA) since 2021. They had faced a similar situation in 2018, when the then Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte had proposed an IT Park, which was eventually shelved.
Persistent opposition from the locals, environmental groups and opposition politicians and legal intervention had led to the IT Park plans being shelved. Now, with new projects being announced, Chimbel residents are up in arms again.
This time the face-off is more intense. A day after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah virtually laid the foundation stone for the projects, the locals of Chimbel performed the traditional prayer of Garane near Dev Baigankar in Kadamba plateau, Ponda and a few other places to seek divine intervention for the protection of their wetland.
A day before the central home minister was to arrive in Goa, they, along with local activists, assembled at the Azad Maidan in Panjim to demonstrate against the proposed projects. They raised concerns over the destruction of wetland and agricultural land due to the projects.
Govind Shirodkar, chairman of Chimbel biodiversity management committee (BMC), said his village has already been facing environmental degradation over the past several decades due to illegal encroachments and construction that served the greed of local politicians and their vote bank politics.
“We have been facing onslaught from illegal construction since 1974, when the Indiranagar (settlement for migrants) came up. It (Indiranagar) is the vote bank of Mammy (former Chimbel Congress MLA Victoria Fernandes)) and later her son (current BJP MLA Rudolf Fernandes),” he lamented.
Shirodkar alleged, lately, it was Khaunte, who has set his sight on plots around the wetland to set up mega projects. This, he said, would not only kill the ecology of the region but even strip the farmers of their livelihood.
He informed, today, one can get water at the depth of six metres from the ground surface at the highest point of wetland and at lower levels, they form streams flowing to nearby farms. If mega projects were allowed to be carried out, the water tables in the area would sink low.
Toyyar lake was built by the Portuguese in 1909 and has since served as major source of water resource to Chimbel and regions close to it (see Goa’s First Water Treatment Unit Was Built by Portugues in Chimbel).
Sandesh Kukolkar, activist from Chimbel village, who had participated in the IT protest in 2018, said he was attacked for it but that has not deterred him from joining the protest again.
“I will fight till the end of my life. This lake is our lifeline and we will not let anyone destroy it,” he said.
The Village Panchayat (VP) of the Chimbel has held several Gram Sabhas – general assembly of all adult voters in a village or group of villages – since the State government’s two projects have been made public and passed resolutions against them.
A notice was issued on September 6 by the Sarpanch of Chimbel Sandesh Shirodkar informing the TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane, Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB), Town and Country Planning (TCP) department and department of tourism (DoT) about the resolution passed by the Gram Sabha to oppose construction activity around Toyaar.
At the same meeting, the VP resolved to declare the area falling outside of notified wetland area of Toyaar lake as a Biodiversity Park. Since then, every Gram Sabha that has been held has passed these resolutions.
Over the years, many projects have been proposed on the wetland and areas around it, including a football ground by MLA Rudolf Fernandes.
There has also been an objection over the current size of the wetland, buffer zone and influence zone, which measures 51,085 sqm. These “serious inaccuracies” have been brought to the notice of the GSWA for correction.
The local authorities have also been pressing the GSWA for demarcation of the wetland for check indiscriminate encroachments.
“It is also essential that the Goa State Wetland Authority undertakes a physical demarcation of the wetland area together with its buffer zone and zone of influence. Such demarcation, carried out on ground and duly recorded, will act as a necessary safeguard to ensure that no encroachments, dumping, or unauthorised constructions take place in and around the wetland,” reads a letter issued to the member secretary, GSWA, on September 24.
Late last month, when the State government, disregarding Chimbel VP’s resolution to oppose its projects, initiated barricading and tree felling without valid legal approvals and permits (see report on Illegalities Galore in Chimbel’s Proposed Projects), the Chimbel Sarpanch promptly issued a notice-cum-order under Section 66 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act to stop all work.
“I, the undersigned, Sarpanch of Village Panchayat Chimbel do hereby direct you to stop the work of illegal development activities in Survey No.40/1 of Village Chimbel with an immediate effect on receipt of this notice, and to submit/provide valid documents such as permission/license, plans and other property documents for further needful action, failing which further necessary action will be initiated against you as per Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994,” said the notice issued by the Chimbel VP to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) executive engineer on October 1.
And, as the agitation against the government projects gathers momentum, the people’s mood in the Chimbel village is turning fiery. It is evident in seventy-eight-old Chimbel resident Maria Salvas’ outburst; “we will not relent at any cost. We are ready to even lay down our life to protect our Toyyar lake”.
Meanwhile, the environmental activists and the VP are exploring taking a legal recourse to save the wetland from ecological disaster.

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