Even as the Tourism, Aviation Industries and multiple Governments at the Centre and in Goa celebrate the unveiling of Mopa’s Greenfield International Airport, a few things seem weird when you look at the Airport on Satellite Maps. For starters, the Airport is on a Plateau all of whose slopes are lush green with vegetation and there are two rivers – Terekhol on the North and Chapora on the South. So, what’s the connection you may ask? Simple, Mopa Plateau is a giant aquifer made of up porous laterite rocks that capture vast volumes of rainwater and feed the two rivers and the slopes of rich fauna and flora. The runways, taxiways and vast volumes of concretisation threaten to choke all natural water runoffs. Mopa Airport always had questionable credentials from the environmental clearance point of view. For example, the first Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out by L&T Ramboll which called it a barren plateau and after that by Engineers India Limited which found just two springs after studying the area between October to December 2011 post-monsoons. Interestingly, the locals pointed out 30 springs to me and well, the maps here show not only that they were right but the tabletop of the plateau was green, even cultivated. On the southwestern corner of the runway lies Barazan, an ancient grove of twelve banyan trees worshipped by 12 villages in the vicinity over centuries. Plateau top had people from the tribal Dhangar Samaj who kept the plateau alive with their traditions of nature worship living in harmony with  98 Species of Trees, and 251 species of Medicinal Plants. 38 species of Shrubs. 77 species of Herbs, 47 species of Climbers, 60 species of Roadside / Hedge Vegetation, and 63 species of Birds. 20 species of Butterflies, 6 species of Reptiles and 11 species of Mammals Brazen is the fact that this area lay in Eco-Sensitive Zone 1 and is a Part of Northern Western Ghat Montane Forests which was mysteriously deleted from The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel‘s Report. The EIA itself was Rapid, carried out in 3 dry months instead of a Comprehensive 12-month one mandatory for Greenfield Projects.