Hearing a PIL seeking establishment of a Tiger Reserve in the state, a division bench of the Bombay High Court in Goa on Thursday issued notices to the state government as well as the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The petition in connection with which the notices were issued, seeks directions from the Court to the state government "to notify a tiger reserve for the tigers of the state and of adjoining wildlife sanctuaries".
"This urgent relief is sought in the wake of the tragic killing of 4 tigers in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in January, 2020," the public interest litigation filed by a green NGO Goa Foundation states.
"The purposeful killing has also revealed the urgent need for better management of the protected areas in the state and of tiger-human conflicts. These protected areas of Goa form an integral habitat for the tigers in Goa and in the rest of the contiguous Western Ghats complex," the petition adds.
According to the HC order on Thursday, the two bodies i.e., the Goa government and the NTCA have been directed to file a response by August 24.
The NTCA had been commissioned for a probe by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests earlier this year, after four tigers were found dead due to poisoning the state's Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in North Goa.
In its report the NTCA had recommended setting up of a Tiger Reserve in the state, failure of which, the national tiger conservation body warned, could pose a "death trap" to the tigers in the region on account of the increasing man-animal conflict.
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