Goa's Endangered Wildlife

by NANDKUMAR KAMAT
Posted on 2008-10-04
Wildlife includes all the non-domesticated, wild species-animals, birds, plants, insects, micro organisms. Wildlife cannot exist without natural wilderness-areas not interfered by humans. The country is celebrating wildlife week-but Goa’s wildlife faces the threat of total extinction by middle of this century on account of several factors such as; climate change, hunting and poaching, overexploitation, habitat modification and fragmentation, disruption of natural migration corridors, ecological simplification due to subsidised and managed landscaping, monoculture plantations, biological invasion, disturbance in food chain, industrial pollution, urbanisation, lack of public education, weak law enforcement machinery to list a few. Most of the wild animals have now retreated to the innermost areas of government controlled wildlife sanctuaries and those, which are fighting for survival, are fighting against the time.
All over Goa I see a trail of destruction as I attempt to synthesise the information received from volunteers and natural historians. People are hounding out the common anteaters (muykhairo) from coastal sand dunes. Pythons (har) are captured and are paraded as trophies. Thousands of bull frogs end up to cook the highly prized monsoon dish-jumping chicken.
Elephants attacking humans and panthers straying in settlement areas are indicators of ecosystem destruction. More than a thousand illegal firearms in the villages of Ponda, Sattari, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona pose a great danger to the wild animals. Crude bombs and locally assembled booby traps are used to hunt the wild animals. Explosives smuggled from mining areas are illegally used for ‘blast fisheries’ endangering the rare varieties of freshwater and estuarine fish. The alluvial sand mining business in Chapora and Terekhol rivers have eliminated the rich beds of clams, bivalves, oysters and Goa may have lost a rich diversity of these filter feeding species.
A controversial project is threatening the fertile oyster, mussels harvesting zone in Chicalim-Marmagoa. Endangered and globally banned species of sharks are still sold in local markets. Dolphins are meeting the same fate. River otters-‘udd’ is now a rare sight. Many fertile beds of lobsters have been lost due to land reclamation and aquatic pollution. Birds are not safe. The common sparrows prone to pesticide toxicity are becoming a rare sight.
Hunting still goes on Carambolim lake at dawn for pintail ducks , coots and purple moorhens- our winter visitors. Peafowl-the national bird of India is hunted and even kept as a pet illegally. Flying foaxes and smaller fruit bats too are facing the pressure. Bandicoots/mongooses are bewildered as their habitats have come under pressure and many are seen crushed on the roads. Wild honeybees are getting endangered. More than 40 species of wildflowers are threatened due to habitat fragmentation. Fireflies would disappear from urbanized pockets in a few years. The entire rich gene pool of Termitomyces mushrooms, Goa’s favourite monsoon fungal delicacy is threatened due to unprecedented exploitation and lack of new recruitment in species population.
Eupatorium-ankur- is Goa’s popular edible fern. But where are the habitats left? The Mapusa river has become a sewer. Once it supported vast stands of Eupatorium in mangrove fringed areas. The forest department is fighting with its back to the wall. It is facing opposition from powerful vested interests. The coastal nesting habitats of Oliver ridley’s turtles are facing problems as locals have become greedy to make a killing from tourism from same areas. Weeds like Eupatorium are threatening local forests and grasslands. All local fresh water bodies are choked with invasive weeds like salvinia, pistchia and water hyacinth. Exotic and unwanted species of insects have entered Goa. These would now play havoc in the field.
Huge nests of stinging social wasps were recently destroyed in Taleigao and Santa Cruz. These dangerous and aggressive wasps are set to take over coastal urban areas. Termites, deprived of surface plant litter, grasses, wood etc, have changed their feeding style and are exploring human habitats. This is leading to heavy economic losses. The diversity, distribution and density of pollinators-insects, birds, reptiles, mammals has come down but very few people admit that their crop losses or poor yields are due to this reason. Indiscriminate use of agrofertilizers, agrochemicals , soaps, detergents, plastics have left devastating ecological footprints all over Goa.
The wildlife census tells only a part of the story. Even today the biodiversity of Goa is still not fully catalogued. Only five per cent of species are known. But destruction of entire ecosystems, natural habitats, rare soil types is taking place without any biodiversity impact assessment. Ecorestoration would take decades but saving what remains becomes our first priority-let us not forget the ancient wisdom -“All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all”.