The coconut palm was formally accorded tree status and elevated to the position of “State tree”, after the Goa legislative Assembly on the last day of the monsoon session passed amendments to two laws.
The Assembly unanimously passed the amendments to the Goa, Daman and Diu Act and Protection of Trees Act, 1984, which were cleared by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition cabinet on August 2.
“We have delivered what we promised. We had said that this Government would revert tree status to the coconut-palm,” Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai told reporters after the amendments were passed on the final day of the monsoon session, as promised by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
When the former BJP-led coalition Government led by then Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar had done away with the tree status to the coconut palm in 2016, there was an uproar in the State, with the Opposition as well as civil society activists claiming that the decision was taken in a hasty manner to facilitate clearance of coconutgroves by promoters of real estate and industries.