NT Reporter
Panaji
Fr (Dr) Bolmax Pereira — priest, educator, farmer and one of Goa’s most recognisable environmental voices — died after suffering a massive heart attack in the early hours of Tuesday. He was 50.
His death has been widely mourned across Goa’s environmental movement, church circles and among the many students and young people he mentored over the years.
Fr Bolmax served as parish priest of St Francis Xavier Church, Chicalim, chairman of the Diocesan Commission on Ecology, Assistant Professor of Botany at St Joseph Vaz College, Cortalim, and mentor to the Chicalim Youth Farmers’ Club. He was known for combining faith, ecology and community work, bringing environmental issues into classrooms, parishes and public life.
Trained in botany, Fr Bolmax researched the sustainable management of wetlands in Goa and served in several parishes including Fatorda, Loutolim, Mapusa, Agassaim and Nerul during his ministry.
Through the Chicalim Youth Farmers’ Club and his ‘You Sow You Eat’ initiative, he encouraged
young people to reconnect with farming and food
cultivation. Those who worked with him said he viewed caring for the land as both education and responsibility.
He also contributed to environmental education as resource faculty and adjudicator for the Children’s Science Congress, National Green Corps, Wipro Earthian Sustainability Programme and awareness initiatives organised by the Goa State Council for Science and Technology.
His work was recognised through several honours, including the Goa State Biodiversity Board Appreciation Award for Biodiversity Conservation, the Thomas Stephens Konkani Kendra Puraskar for contribution to Goa’s environment, and the Eco Achievers of India Award by the CBCI Ecology Commission. In 2021, his contribution to the Amche Mollem campaign was recognised through Sanctuary Asia’s Wildlife Service Award.
Fr Bolmax was among the prominent voices of the Amche Mollem movement, which since 2020 has opposed three infrastructure projects cutting through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary — railway doubling, a power transmission line and highway expansion through forest areas in Goa’s Western Ghats.
Campaign members said he took the cause beyond activism, raising awareness through church livestreams, encouraging parishioners to write to elected representatives and mobilising youth through peace walks, creative protests and community gatherings. He was also present at the December 19, 2020 ‘Future Full of Forests’ gathering in Panaji that drew thousands in support of Mollem.
Reacting to his passing, Dr Nandini Velho of the Amche Mollem campaign said, “The youth of Goa and the Amche Mollem campaign have lost a friend who took everyone along irrespective of caste, creed or religion; a patient mentor who never gave up despite the odds and pressure that was thrust on him; and a guide who led by example.”
Sherry Fernandes of the campaign said Fr Bolmax was “one of those rare people who made others feel lighter just by being around them”.
“He cared deeply about Goa, its forests and its people, and carried that care with humour and grace. At times when I felt hopeless about what was happening to Goa’s forests, he was one of the few people who still made hope feel possible,” she said.
Fr Bolmax leaves behind a legacy that touched the Church, academia, agriculture and Goa’s environmental movement.
Retired Allahabad High Court Chief Justice, Justice Ferdino Rebello said Goa has lost one of its fiercest protectors and gentlest souls with the passing of
Fr Bolmax Pereira.
Rebello said Fr Bolmax did not merely speak about conservation but lived it through action in villages, fields and public spaces, inspiring many through his advocacy for ecology and community rights.
