PANJIM, JULY 11
Bondla wildlife sanctuary would be the first one to get tagged as Critical Wildlife Habitat (CHW), as entire process for the sanctuary to be notified is over.
Senior forest department official told Herald that the department is awaiting node from the State government over the notification. “It’s just a part of procedure. The government has already given their approval verbally. The same will be forwarded to the central government soon,” official said.
The sanctuary is one amongst those wildlife sanctuaries of the state which would be declared as CHWs under Tribal Welfare Act.
The department is also confident of declaring Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary as CHW soon, as the state government has already given its approval to go ahead with the public hearing.
“By next month, we will have a public hearing in Cotigao. We believe that people will grant their full support as large number of habitants in this sanctuary need to be shifted,” official said.
“As CWHs will be declared under Tribal Welfare Act, 2006, it will provide adequate protection to the forest dwellers. We will see that no one is affected,” official stated.
The Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary is spread across 86.25 sq kilometers area while the smallest wildlife sanctuary- Bondla covers 8 sq kilometers of area.
Bhagvan Mahavir wildlife sanctuary and Netravali wildlife sanctuary will also be protected by given CHW status, simultaneously.
Meanwhile, the forest department has decided to defer notification of Chorao Bird sanctuary as CHW owing to the opposition by the locals.
Official said that they will take up the issue of rest of the sanctuaries before deciding on Chorao. “As there has been oppose from large section of people, we have decided to cover all other sanctuaries first and will then move to Chorao,” official said.
Chorao Bird sanctuary’s declaration as CWH had faced a hurdle with locals opposing it right from day one. The locals feel that they are not been taken into consideration by the forest department over CHW status nor the department have clearly specify to what extend it is likely to affect the people.
There has been no public hearing over the CHW status since last four months, after the locals demanded deferring of hearing scheduled on February 22, 2010.
Forest Department has been clear in their stand that not a single person will be affected after declaring the bird sanctuary as CHW.
