PANAJI: The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority has thrown a spanner in the restoration works of the Chapora Fort. The authority has taken the department of archives and archaeology to task for disrespecting the CRZ notification and illegally cutting hill to make way for a road so as to transport construction materials for restoring the fort, which falls under no development zone.
The authority has directed the department to stop all the work at the site until the clearance is given by the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change.
Issuing the stop work order, the authority noted that this gross damage to the environment could have been avoided had it been discussed by the archeology directorate with the GCZMA before starting the work.
“The department of archives and archaeology being a government department undertakes many such public projects and cannot plead ignorance of law – that the GCZMA permission is required for the said project – and carry out massive construction in ecologically sensitive areas,” the authority observed.
The department of archives and archaeology had directed the PWD to take up the hill cutting to build a road, retaining wall and a staircase with laterite masonry. But all these have been found to be constructed in violation of CRZ regulations.
The authority has found that the Chapora Fort is a CRZ- I area and the area within a distance of 100 mts surrounding the fort is a NDZ area where the environment must not be disturbed. The massive hill cutting with depth of 5-6 metre to make the road, parking area and steps were all found to be falling in the NDZ area and within 200-500 metre from the high tide line.
The observation was made following a joint site inspection carried out by expert members of the GCZMA and officials of the Goa State Biodiversity Board, the public works department, the DSLR and the forest department.
The team observed that the topography of the area is completely hampered and the ecological damage is vast hence protection of the environment can only be done by restoration.
“Vertically cut hill can be restored by providing large boulders filled with lateritic soil to a width of five-six metre which would provide natural surface over a period of time. The concrete retaining walls by the side of the road should be demolished and provided with natural stone cladding to restore the look,” the authority suggested.
The GCZMA had earlier on January issued a show-cause notice following a complaint from an Anjuna resident Sagardeep Sirsaikar, alleging that there had been illegal hill-cutting and construction of road near Chapora Fort in the property bearing survey number 356/9, which was carried out by the department of archives and archaeology.
In its reply the director of archives and archaeology argued that the Chapora Fort had been in dilapidated conditions calling for urgent repairs. It was the prime duty of the department to conserve such monuments of archaeological importance in the public interest.
“The ongoing work at Fort of Chapora is within the scope of the maintenance of protected monument as per Section 13 (2) and 17 of the Goa Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1978 and Rules 1980, and provides that the public shall have a right of access to any protected monument,” the department submitted in its reply.
The authority after hearing the parties noted that the regulation at para 7 (i) (k) of the CRZ Notification, 2011, as amended that says “the areas or structures of archaeological importance and heritage sites” are classified as CRZ-I wherein no new construction shall be permitted with certain exceptions.