The Goa government has opposed the report of the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) recommending the notification of a tiger reserve in the state, calling it “vague and without legal or factual basis.”
In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Goa’s additional principal chief conservator of forests, K. Ramesh Kumar, said the committee, which submitted its report to the top court in November last year, failed to “apply its mind” to the ground reality. The top court had earlier asked the committee to examine the issue.
Goa approached the Supreme Court to challenge a July 2023 high court order mandating the creation of a 745-sq km reserve in the Mhadei region — a move the state has resisted for years.
The CEC, which looked into the issue on the top court’s direction, recommended that a tiger reserve be notified in Goa in two stages: the areas contiguous to the Kali Tiger Reserve in Karnataka were to be notified first, followed by other areas.
HT has reviewed a copy of the affidavit dated January 23 filed by the state government. The top court will next take up the case on February 16.
Goa’s primary contention against the tiger reserve rests on the absence of a resident tiger population. Kumar’s affidavit argued that any such proposal must be predicated on the presence of breeding or resident tigers and reasoned that the CEC report focused on relocating local villagers rather than proving the existence of resident tigers.
“The issue for consideration before the CEC was, whether in the light of prevailing facts and circumstances, the Cotigao-Mhadei forest complex of Goa comprising five protected areas viz. Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary are to be notified as a Tiger Reserve or not. Any proposal for notifying an area as a Tiger Reserve must be predicated upon the presence of breeding/resident Tigers in the concerned area,” Kumar said in his affidavit.
“However, a bare perusal of the report reveals that the CEC completely failed to undertake any meaningful exercise to ascertain the presence of the tiger population (whether permanent or transient) in the Cotigao-Mhadei forest complex. Instead, the CEC has proceeded on an erroneous premise by focusing on the population of local inhabitants rather than first determining the existence and status of the tiger population. The report proceeds as though the notification of a tiger reserve is a foregone conclusion and the only matter requiring examination is the identification of areas and relocation of inhabitants therein,” the affidavit said.
It added that Goa already had a framework of protected areas that were scientifically managed and ensured comprehensive protection for all species, including tigers; there was no need for a tiger reserve solely for the conservation of tigers in Karnataka.
“Given the lack of resident and breeding tigers and the mere presence of a few transient tigers passing through the area does not by itself, necessitate declaring the area as a tiger reserve, when the protections afforded to such an area are in itself sufficient towards ensuring adequate safeguards to the transit of tigers, the affidavit said.
Goa also underlined that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) report of 2022 noted that there was no presence of tigers in any of the currently proposed areas to be notified as a tiger reserve.
The CEC has recommended that the Tiger Reserve be implemented in two phases -- the first phase involving around 468.6 sq km of the Cotigao and Netravali Wildlife Sanctuaries, which are contiguous with the Kali Tiger Reserve in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district to be notified as a core area, while the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary of 64.9 sq km and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park of 107sq km as buffer area of the proposed tiger reserve.
To be sure, NTCA has long backed the idea of setting up a tiger reserve at the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary beginning 2011. It reiterated its recommendation in 2016 and then again in 2020 after a tigress and her three cubs were found poisoned in the very forests that Goa claims are not a permanent habitat.
For the Goa Foundation, the environmental group that brought the original case in the High Court, the reserve is a vital safeguard against poaching and encroachment. It has not filed its response to the Goa government but said it will do so shortly.
