Home / April 18- April 24, 2026 / LAW / GOA’S LOVED LANDSCAPES ARE VARNISHING… COURTESY ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS! By Olav Albuquerque
GOA’S LOVED LANDSCAPES ARE VARNISHING… COURTESY ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS! By Olav Albuquerque
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GOA’S LOVED LANDSCAPES ARE VARNISHING… COURTESY ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS! By Olav Albuquerque

April 18- April 24, 2026, LAW April 17, 2026 , by

IN the landscapes of Salcette, Tiswadi, and Bardez, massive multi-storied buildings are rising — not to house Goans, but to provide second and third homes to millionaires, billionaires and may be even trillionnaires from Delhi and elsewhere. This “vertical invasion” is more than just an architectural shift; it is a direct assault on Goan asmitai — the very soul of our identity.
 That the building lobby is backed by ministers is trite: these ministers own construction firms that usurp prime land for construction and get the approvals from the panchayat and the Town & Country Planning Department through phone calls. They own construction firms and through third parties, allow illegal houses to be built in private forest zones and along hill slopes as in Salvador do Mundo and throughout Goa.
The 2025 amendment passed by the Goa Government titled: The Goa Regularization of Unauthorized Constructions Act, 2016 is a crime perpetrated on owners of land because an illegal construction which has been put up on the land of another can be regularized if it can be proved that the illegal house has been existing for decades. This itself enables anti-social elements to grab the land of others by proving they have ration cards showing the address as that of the illegal house.
Development is inevitable, declares the chief minister and high-rises are the hallmark of a modern Goa. However, the Goan Observer — this very newspaper which you are reading — has emphasized that these “gilded slums” often lack the most basic infrastructure.

FROM DABOLIM TO DONA PAULA
FROM Dabolim to Dona Paula, prestigious luxury enclaves are grappling with non-functional sewage treatment plants and a lack of PWD water connections, eating at the very vitals of Goa.
 These projects rely on deep borewells that drain the traditional open wells of neighbouring villagers, creating a direct conflict over water rights which is a direct violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.
When we replace a field or a forested hill with a concrete foundation, we don’t just lose a view; we lose the natural “sponges” that recharge our aquifers, leading to rapid runoff and saltwater ingress into our groundwater, turning our wells into cess pits, rendering pure drinking water toxic.
Goan asmitai ensconces the concept of the communidade which are ancient self-governing institutions recognized by Afonso de Albuquerque when he entered Goa in 1510. These communidades ensconced the polycentric urbanism of our villages — where life revolved around the chapel, the temple, the square, and the fields.
This social fabric has been destroyed by corrupt ministers whose companies usurp land. Non-Goans come to live here only a few weeks a year, contributing nothing to the local economy while placing immense pressure on electricity, roads, and waste management.
In villages like Sancoale, projects are seeking massive increases in Floor Area Ratio (FAR) to build luxury townships on “no-development” slopes. This isn’t urban planning; it’s a “windfall” for developers at the cost of the environment.
The Supreme Court has already warned the Goa government not to turn the state into a “concrete jungle,” but land is still being illegally converted using the much maligned section 39A of the Town & Country Planning Act.

Displacement of Goans
PERHAPS the most painful impact of the high-rise boom is the economic displacement of the Goan people. As real estate prices surge — driven by demand for second homes by “moneybags” in Delhi and elsewhere — local Goans are being priced out of their own residential market.
 What makes Goa special is the balcãos where villagers chatted for centuries, the narrow lanes that respect the topography, and the sense of belonging to a specific piece of earth. A 15-storied tower in a heritage zone, like the ones proposed in Margao, creates a “social divide.”
The wealthy live in air-conditioned isolation while the surrounding village crumbles under the weight of outdated infrastructure. This is regression using the façade of development because it creates social divisions between the Goemkars and the moneybags from Delhi who include the IPS and IAS officers who come here from the AGMUT cadre to occupy top positions in the bureaucracy.

Reclaiming Our Future
THERE is a growing resistance. From the hunger strikes against Section 39A of the TCP Act to the furious protests in villages like Davondem and Navelim, Goans are demanding a “bottom-up” approach to planning.
This is why those who care for Goa like the former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Ferdino Inacio Rebello, whose redoubtable demands put to the chief minister — culminated in him being branded an “urban Naxal” — have not succeeded in rolling back the sale of Goa to outsiders.
The future of Goa’s real estate should not be about “nostalgia versus newness,” but about architectural continuity. We need policies that incentivize the restoration of heritage homes and the construction of low-density, climate-responsive housing that uses local materials like laterite and timber.
If we allow our villages to be replaced by ugly concrete blocks, we may wake up to find that while the buildings have reached the clouds, the Goan asmitai has vanished forever. We must protect our hills, our fields, and our unique way of life — because once asmitai is buried under concrete, no amount of “luxury” will ever bring it back.

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