Bolmax Pereira, priest who fought to keep Goa green, dies at 50

Panaji: Fr Bolmax Pereira, a priest of the Goa archdiocese, academic and prominent activist who championed the environment, died at 4.30am on Tuesday after a cardiac arrest at the GMC. He was 50.

A native of Quepem, Pereira was serving as parish priest at St Francis Xavier Church, Chicalim. He also balanced pastoral responsibilities with academics as assistant professor of botany at St Joseph Vaz College, Cortalim.

His health began deteriorating a few days ago after he collapsed at Vasco railway station while travelling with parishioners for a picnic to Collem. He showed signs of recovery but died during emergency treatment, GMC doctors said.

Pereira’s death has saddened parishioners, environmentalists and others who knew him for taking Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical into communities, supporting people’s struggles, and mentoring citizens to defend nature and pursue the common good.

He was at the forefront of the agitation against railway doubling and mentored those behind the ‘Save Mollem’ campaign that mobilised to prevent the destruction of the biodiversity hotspot. He led community initiatives to empower youth by reviving agriculture, afforestation of mangroves, and clean-up drives. He encouraged paddy cultivation through the Chicalim Youth Farmers Club and was a member of Chicalim Bio Crusaders.

As convener of the Diocesan Commission for Ecology, he was a key figure in implementing Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, in Goa. Former vice-president of the Catholic Association of Goa, Jovito Lopes, said Pereira consistently framed environmental degradation, climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss as moral and spiritual concerns, calling on people to protect “our common home” and promote integral ecology.

He helped organise the archdiocese’s ‘Season of Creation’ initiatives such as the ‘Green Guardians’ course. He received the Goa State Biodiversity Board Appreciation Award for Biodiversity Conservation, among other honours.

Pereira’s remains will be kept at Chicalim church at 7am on Tuesday. A Eucharistic service will be held at 10am, after which his remains will be taken to his home in Quepem, where a funeral will be held at Holy Cross Church at 3.30pm.