Tiger reserve issue: Central panel to meet stakeholders during 2-day Goa visit

Spread over 208 square kilometres, the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the northeastern part of the coastal state, adjoining Karnataka.

Panaji: The central empowered committee will undertake a two-day visit to Goa starting Thursday to meet stakeholders against the backdrop of the state challenging the Bombay High Court order to notify Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve.

Two members of the Supreme Court-appointed panel Chandra Prakash Goyal and Sunil Limaye would meet all the stakeholders, including NGO Goa Foundation, which had filed a public interest litigation before the HC, mandating that the state government declare the area as a tiger reserve, sources said.

The committee members will also meet representatives from Sanvordem, Valpoi, Canacona, Sanguem and Poriem assembly constituencies, under which the area of the proposed tiger reserve is located, they said.

Last month, the Supreme Court ordered status quo in Goa's Mhadei-Kotigaon area, which was identified by NTCA as a reserve for the big cats.

It asked the central empowered committee to hear stakeholders in the matter and decide the issue in six weeks.

The SC ordered no projects or development to be undertaken in the meantime.

The state government had filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, challenging the order of the HC's Goa bench on July 24, 2023.

The HC had ordered the state government to declare Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding areas as a tiger reserve within a period of 3 months from the date of judgment.

It had also directed the Goa government to take all steps to prepare a tiger conservation plan and forward the same to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) within three months of notifying Mhadei as a tiger reserve.

The HC also directed the Goa government to determine and settle the rights and claims of the Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers following the law, preferably within 12 months from the date of judgment.

During the hearing in the Supreme Court, the state government's counsel argued that as per the NTCA guidelines, an area of 800 to 1,000 sq km would have to be declared as an inviolate space for a tiger reserve.

The area, comprising the presently protected areas of Bhagwan Mahaveer National Park (Mollem), Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary, Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary, adds up to a total of 745 sq km.

Therefore, to declare an area larger than the already protected area as an inviolate space would be an aberration, the Goa government had argued.

It had also told the SC that Goa is a smaller state, with a size of only 3,700 sq km, out of which 20 per cent of the area is already declared as a protected area, wildlife sanctuary and national parks.

"However, the requirement of declaring 800-1000 sq km of area as an inviolate space within the tiger reserve would effectively mean that there could be no human inhabitation or any other intrusion in the area that is earmarked for the tiger reserve," it added.

The Goa government had also submitted to the SC that more than one lakh people would have to be shifted to make way for the small population of 4-5 tigers due to the requirement that the core zone of the reserve would be an "inviolate" zone, where the presence of human beings could not be tolerated.

The state government argued before the SC that the NTCA had not established that they were "resident tigers".

It had, however, admitted that the area was being used as a corridor for tigers moving between Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The government further claimed that since there were no cubs with the tigers seen, these could not be considered "resident tigers".

It had also claimed that more than 10,000 claims were pending resolution under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.