Publications
Fish, Curry & Rice
First Citizens’ report on Goa’s environment
The first momentous publication of Fish Curry and Rice, a citizen’s report on Goa’s ecology and environment. The book was released in Panaji by Smt. Maneka Gandhi. It has gone into several editions ever since, with major revisions.
The Supreme Court of India and Intergenerational Equity: The Goa Mining Case
This book chronicles the amazing story of how a small, publicly funded environmental monitoring group called the Goa Foundation successfully fought a ten year battle to bring Goa’s entire privately held mining industry to account.
The Goa mining case led to three consecutive judgments of the Supreme Court, with the Court each time refusing any concessions to former lease holders. These judgments also led to wide-ranging changes in mining laws and regulations, including the requirement that all future alienation of minerals would only be done through the process of public auction, thus generating maximum revenues to public exchequers.
The case also heralded the beginnings of the first judicially instigated Permanent Fund for the State of Goa which would receive monies from every sale invoice dealing with minerals and sequester them for the benefit and use of future generations of Goans.
The Supreme Court of India and Intergenerational Equity will be useful to all persons – especially social activists – keenly interested in regulation of the extractives industry, issues of ownership of natural resources, the manner of their alienation, and the apex court’s cumulative and consistent judgments furthering the implementation of the principle of intergenerational equity. The book contains a day-to-day record of the court proceedings, arguments on behalf of the Goa Foundation led by Prashant Bhushan, the counter arguments of more than a dozen legal luminaries from Rohtagi to K.K. Venugopal. The authors have also included the full text of the unprecedented judgment that declared five years of mining illegal as it was carried out with a valid lease. A final section gathers together current legal thinking surrounding alienation of natural resources, the need for permanent funds to protect the interests of coming generations, and the Supreme Court’s various judgments on intergenerational equity and the doctrine of Public Trust.
Order the book online from: https://www.banyantreebookstore.com/. You can also find it at Broadway Book Centre, and Varsha Book Stall, Panaji and Dogears Bookstore in Margao.
Goa: Sweet Land of Mine
This book is a severe critique in colour of the deadly damage being caused by iron ore mining companies to Goa’s forests, wildlife, biodiversity and the ecologically sensitive region of the Western Ghats – one of the plant’s twelve most important ecological hotspots. The occasion for the book is the recent spate of ‘environment clearances’ granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for such mining leases in Goa. More than 70 such clearances have been issued to more than 70 mining leases without site inspections or listening to villagers affected by mining operations.