Team Herald
PANJIM: Decades after being notified as Protected Areas (PAs), Mhadei, Bondla and Mollem will soon have Wildlife Management Plans (WMPs) that will spell out the activities that are allowed and prohibited along with adopting animal-friendly conservation methods.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The management plans for Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary and Cotigao Wild Life Sanctuary are already in place. In the next two months, plans for Mhadei and Mollem are expected to be ready while the Bondla plan is finalized.
The Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park, spread across a 240 sq km area in Dharbandora taluka, were declared as wildlife sanctuaries (WLS) in 1969. The core area of the sanctuary covering 107 sq km (41 sq miles) was notified as Mollem National Park in 1978.
Spread across 208 sq km, the Mhadei WLS was declared as PA in 1999. The Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary is hardly 8 sq km.
The Goa Forest Development Corporation Ltd (GFDCL) is the nodal agency for preparing the plan following directions from the Chief Wildlife Warden.
“This is for the first time that WMPs are being prepared for these protected areas ever since they were notified,” the officer said.
The Officer further informed that the WMPs will spell out better ways of management and conservation of the protected areas, along with identifying the activities that can be allowed and prohibited.
“Management plan will also focus on curbing the animal-human conflict,” he said.
The WMP for Mhadei is being prepared by Dr Nitin Sawant of Goa University while Sujit Dongre of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) has worked on Mollem and for Bondla it is Dr Nand Kumar Sawant and Dr Nandini Vaz of Chowgule College.
The State Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had in its 2019 report, pulled up the State Forest Department for lack of policy management.
