Goa (INDIA) A ruling parliamentarian from the Western Indian state of Goa has accused his own party's government in the neighboring state of Maharashtra of allowing iron ore mining to run riot and pollute water-bodies in Goa. Speaking in the House of Elders on Wednesday Shantaram Naik said that “environment experts in Goa have expressed fear that increasing mining activities in Maharashtra's Dodamarg and Sawantwadi areas”, border Goa was “causing pollution of the waters of two rivers in Goa” namely the Tiracol and the Colvale. Congress MP Naik has now urged the Congress-led alliance government-ruled Maharashtra government, to take steps under the Environment Protection Act, Water Pollution Act and laws dealing with mining activities to curb the menace. “Both the Tiracol and the Colvale rivers originated in Maharashtra and are a lifeline of northern Goan areas by damaging farm land as well as causing permanent damage to wildlife habitat,” Naik told Bikyamasr.com. Green experts have cautioned against the large scale of mining in Western India's prime tropical forest area and global biodiversity hotspot, the ‘Western Ghats', from where more than 60 per cent of India's iron ore is extracted by felling of forests and leveling mountains in the hunt for iron ore.
