One body of a big cat found can be an accidental or natural death, but four– a male, a female and two cubs – found dead, some of which had been buried, points to a deliberate killing. There can now be no doubt that the tiger family in the Mhadei family has been killed, possibly by poisoning, but at this early stage one cannot rule out poaching without a complete investigation and also post mortem of the carcasses.
This episode makes it imperative upon the State to investigate this killing of the tigers to determine, not just who is responsible for the deed, but also the reason for the killing. The first doubt was that the tigers had been poisoned because they preyed upon cattle that belonged to the villagers living in the forest, but poaching could still be a reason. There have been instances of poisoning of tigers because of their straying into human habitation and lifting of cattle in other parts of the country. This man-animal conflict has been seen in Goa too, where leopards are concerned. But, if this has been a case of poaching, then it brings a different urgency to the protection of tigers in the State.
Goa has inordinately delayed in protecting the big cat. The request from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to submit a proposal to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve came in 2011. Digambar Kamat was the Chief Minister then. After that Goa has had two State Legislative Assembly elections and four chief ministers, but is yet to submit this proposal to the Centre, that is supported by National Wildlife Board (NWB) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority. There was a period in the past decade, when Goa raised questions on whether the tiger did indeed roam the forests of the State. The camera trap method put this speculation at rest. Every sighting of the tiger led to renewed demands of the core area of the sanctuary being declared a tiger reserve, but the proposal never moved forward.
In February 2016, the then Forests minister had said that the State was willing to protect the tiger and declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary a tiger reserve provided the ongoing animal census proved that the forests of Goa indeed are home to the tigers. The census did prove the presence of the tiger, but this again was not taken forward. With the proposal languishing at the government level, the protection that the tiger could have received has not been forthcoming. One is left to wonder whether this killing of tigers could have been avoided had the sanctuary been declared a tiger reserve. These are now another statistic to be added to the list of tiger killings in the country, even as their population drops quickly.
The declaration of the Mhadei wildlife snactuary will not happen quickly, as the process is lengthy. This makes it imperative that the issue be taken up now, so that the remaining tigers in the forests of Goa are protected from poachers. A tiger reserve could work to the State’s advantage as besides keeping the tigers safe from predators, it would also preserve the biological and ecological reserve that makes up the tiger habitat, besides getting Central funds that would go towards the maintenance and protection of the forest, amelioration of the habitat and eco-development of the people living in the buffer areas of the reserve. The time to act to save the tiger is now.
