Panaji: Actor Zeenat Aman took to social media on Tuesday to share TOI’s March 16 reporton polluted Goan beaches, and called for stronger environmental protection. In an appeal to CM Pramod Sawant, she highlighted the need to safeguard biodiversity, saying she was “in tears” watching the fragile migration and urging immediate steps to preserve Goa’s coastal ecosystems. “Goa gave me an experience I will carry in my heart forever. How tragic then it is to learn that today Goa’s waters—rivers and seas—are so contaminated with faecal content that they are unfit for swimming and fishing,” she wrote.“An appeal to CM Sawant to address the ecological destruction of Goa on priority. Else it will be paradise lost.” She attributed the inspiration behind her post to an evening spent at a turtle nesting site wherein “the sheer beauty of the evening was imprinted” in her heart as she felt the “resilience and ancient wisdom of the Earth” reflected in the baby turtles.“Some weeks ago, hundreds of female turtles hauled themselves out of the sea to dig their nests and lay their clutches. Now, with the moon rising above the water, those eggs were hatching. Somewhere under the sand below our feet, baby turtles were entering the world. Members of the Goa forest department were the evening’s doulas. They gently prised the packed sand loose, and from their excavations, dozens of newborns emerged. Driven by primordial instinct, the babies are wired to walk into the sea, and with a little help from their doulas they begin their journey. I’m told no more than 1 in 1,000 of these little ones will survive to adulthood. And then the adult that survives will have to navigate trawlers, pollution, beach erosion, and collapsing ecosystems,” she wrote.
