Environment Minister Rajendra Arlekar, however, stressed that there is need to preserve tigers in Goa. “If there are tigers then the region should be declared as a corridor. Right now we have initiated a long term study about presence of tigers in this area and we will be able to conclude about the presence of wild cats only after we receive the report,” Arlekar said on Friday after launching the Forest department website.
The five year-long study, is expected to conclude in 2017.
Arlekar recalled that the recent wildlife census, conducted using the camera trap method, discovered the presence of three tigers in this region. He said the study, conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), has concluded the presence of tiger in Mhadei region in its preliminary report.
Environmentalists in the state have been demanding that the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary, which is contiguous to the Dandeli Tiger Reserve, be declared a ‘tiger corridor’. The State Forest department census for 2002, 2006 and 2010 showed a presence of tigers. Though, the department failed to get the result of 2006 census, the 2010 census had stumbled upon the presence of five tigers in Goa’s wilds, with an increase in the number of leopards and wild dogs.
Since 2011, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF), has been urging the State to submit a proposal to declare Mhadei as a tiger reserve.
The next State animal census will be undertaken in 2017. The animal census, conducted every four years, was last held in 2014.
