On the occasion of Save the Frogs Day, consumer forum volunteers under the banner of GOACAN held an Awareness Action programme in Mapusa to highlight the urgent need to stop the indiscriminate killing of frogs and to appeal to consumers to stop eating frog meat.
The forum volunteers displayed placards and distributed information slips to consumers, informing them that the killing of frogs is also an ecological crime against the food chain. Therefore, it is important that consumers should become environmentally conscious and say no to frog meat.
The Awareness Action, which was organised by GOACAN, was part of the ongoing Malaria Awareness Week from April 25 to May 1, wherein consumers were to be informed of the need for community involvement to tackle vector-borne diseases.
Over the last many years, GOACAN has been consistently creating awareness among consumers to inform them that frogs are protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, whereby catching, selling and killing frogs, or serving and eating frog meat, contravenes the provision of the Act and attracts stringent punishment of imprisonment for a period of three years and a fine of Rs 25,000 when cases are booked by the Forest Department officials.
It may be noted that during the monsoon, which is the mating season for many species of frogs, in many villages in Goa, frogs are hunted for the purpose of commercial sale to restaurants as “jumping chicken” as an attraction to domestic and foreign tourists.
Meanwhile, GOACAN has decided to write to the Forest Department requesting a full-scale Awareness Action campaign in North Goa during the forthcoming monsoon which would send a strong signal to those involved in the offences.
GOACAN will also take up the matter with the Tourism Department so that effective communication through an “appropriate advisory on this issue” to all stakeholders in the tourism catering to the domestic and foreign tourist visiting Goa.