‘Not feasible’: Goa wildlife board rejects tiger sanctuary proposal

The Goa wildlife board has rejected a proposal to set up a tiger reserve in the state on the grounds that setting up a tiger reserve at the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary was “not feasible” vis-a-vis the guidelines of central tiger authorities.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state wildlife board on Wednesday evening, chaired by chief minister Pramod Sawant and forest minister Vishwajit Rane.

“The proposal to set up a tiger reserve in Goa was rejected at the meeting considering the small size of the Mhadei Wildlife sanctuary which makes it infeasible to host a tiger reserve,” people present at the meeting said.

The decision comes while the Goa bench of the Bombay high court is hearing a plea by the Goa Foundation, a prominent environmental NGO in the state, seeking directions to the state government to notify a tiger reserve for big cats of the state and adjoining wildlife sanctuaries.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority has on several occasions, most recently in 2020, recommended the setting up of a tiger sanctuary at the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.

The recommendation was made in the wake of the deaths of four tigers, a tigress and three adolescent cubs in 2019 at the Mhadei sanctuary.

“The protected areas of Goa (Mhadei and Mollem) are part of the Western Ghats landscape complex which has the unique distinction of having the world’s largest tiger population. This landscape has several interconnected tiger reserves and protected areas along with reserve forests. However, factors like plantations, agriculture, industrial and infrastructure development activities like widening of roads and railway lines are threatening the existing habitat connectivity in the Western Ghats. Without upgrading the legal status of Goa’s protected areas to that of a tiger reserve and putting in place a strong protection regime in place, the state may become a death trap for tigers dispersing in this landscape,” the NTCA noted in a report submitted in February 2020.

Prior to that the NTCA had made similar recommendations in 2011 and 2016.

However, Rane subsequently told the media in April last year that “as long as (he is) minister, there is no question of a tiger reserve”.

Four wildlife sanctuaries in Goa – Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, Mollem Wildlife Sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary – all located on the eastern frontier of Goa, form a contiguous belt of integral and pristine wildlife habitats admeasuring about 750 sq. km. along Goa’s eastern region.

Beyond the state boundary, this belt is contiguous with tiger reserves and protected areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra. Together, this entire belt forms an integral uninterrupted wildlife habitat in the Western Ghats complex, secure for wildlife, according to the Goa Foundation.