- 06 September, 2025
Chicalim, Goa, September 6, 2025 – The Chicalim Youth Farmers Club (CYFC), a grassroots collective dedicated to reviving farming and promoting sustainable living, has strongly condemned the Union Railway Ministry’s decision to proceed with double-tracking on the Hosapet–Vasco line. The group has also criticised the Goa state government for backing what it described as a destructive project that threatens Goan lives, lands and livelihoods.
CYFC, known for its role in the “Amchem Mollem” and “Save Mollem” campaigns, warned that the project’s route would devastate agriculture and local communities while cutting through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park. Both fall within the UNESCO-listed Western Ghats, recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot.
“Our fields are our classrooms and the land is our legacy. The government seems blind to the ecological disaster it is endorsing,” said CYFC president Shogun Fernandes. “Our lands are not bargaining chips for industrial transport or coal profits. Our fields, our rivers, our forests are the lifelines of our communities and we will not let them be destroyed in silence.”
Environmentalists have long cautioned against large-scale deforestation, damage to wildlife corridors and irreversible biodiversity loss. The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and the Supreme Court have already flagged the risks, even recommending a halt to the project in Mollem. Despite this, Fernandes accused authorities of pressing ahead to protect corporate coal interests over public welfare.
The project’s social costs, CYFC warned, are equally severe. Families face displacement, homes may be demolished, and agricultural land fragmented. For young farmers striving to restore fallow fields, this could make cultivation impossible. Increased coal transport would worsen air and water pollution, jeopardising both residents’ health and the future of sustainable agriculture.
“This project is neither necessary for public transport nor economically justified,” Fernandes said. “It only benefits corporate coal lobbies and will reduce fertile farmlands to dust and concrete.”
CYFC has urged farmers, students, environmentalists and citizens across Goa to unite against the double-tracking. “The fight for our forests is inseparable from the fight for our farmlands,” the club declared, calling on the government to abandon the project and instead prioritise a sustainable future for the state.
“We will not let Goan land be destroyed. We will not be silenced. We will fight for our fields, our forests and our future,” Fernandes affirmed.
By Shogun Fernandes
President CYFC
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