Instigating panchayats to pass resolutions against court judgments is an insult to the judiciary

Within a day of the landmark and inspirational High Court judgment directing the Goa government to notify the long overdue and absolutely non-negotiable Tiger Reserve in Mhadei, there are reports that the locals of Sattari have started “making efforts to pass resolutions opposing the Tiger reserve”.

With all due respect, it is unlikely that too many of them would have read the judgment or grasped all its nuances within 24 hours. 

A call, to explain the judgment to them and respond to their apprehensions if any, is a democratic call. But a call to oppose and reject a High Court judgment delivered after five years of trial based on concrete facts, is an anti-democratic call, showing disrespect to the judiciary, the only institution along with the responsible press that is keeping the fire of democracy burning.

Can there be a bigger embarrassment than this for any State that has been indicted by the High Court “for its abject failure in notifying the tiger reserve”? This indicates that Goa as a state is failing to follow the goals of the Prime Minister’s Project Tiger initiative and giving ‘excuses’,  a word used in the High Court judgment.

At the very least it should make amends, respect the judgment and not be a party to any people’s move speak against the judgment and not obey it. 

It will not only be contempt, but it will be a collapse of the state’s reputation as a judiciary-abiding responsible state.

A report in another local daily on Wednesday stated that there are efforts to make panchayats pass resolutions opposing the Tiger Reserve. This begs the question, who is making the efforts? Is the common man collectively under an umbrella body or a formation doing this, or are there powerful political interests, dismayed by the High Court decision, who are orchestrating this move using the common man as a front?

One of the questions that have been asked is how many families will be affected by this verdict. The answer to this lies, among other documents, in an office note issued by the Deputy Conservator of Forests on March 23, 2018 in response to the “desire of the Chief Minister” to furnish him details of the proposed Tiger Reserve. 

Point 10 of that note signed by Vikas V Dessai, Deputy Conservator of Forests, under the heading “Relocation of villages” states, “The locations in protected areas having large habitations have been decided to be left out of proposed Tiger Reserve areas, whereas smaller habitations have been included as they can be considered for the purpose or relocation.”

The relocation proposal underlined a process of “informed consent” by involving the gram sabha and interacting with people on the proposed re-location for a small group of people, who needed to be relocated.

Moreover, those who are pressing the relocation should answer why didn’t the Government complete the relocation process for decades from the time the areas were declared under wildlife sanctuaries? 

There has been a farcical delay in carrying out resettlement which has been highlighted by the High Court in Para 108 of the judgment where it said that the statutory timeline for settling the claims of forest dwellers is two years from the notification date of a protected area.

The notification of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife sanctuary was issued in 1967 and the Mhadei and Netravali sanctuaries in 1999. In 1997 the Supreme Court took cognisance of the failure of many State governments in settling the rights of forest dwellers and gave all States a year more, telling them to complete the process by August 21, 1998.

The High Court in its judgment damned the Goa government for its failure to even take advantage of this breather by the Supreme Court. 

Despite the expiry of 25 years since this direction was issued, the State of Goa has not bothered to complete the process of determining and settling rights of the various dwellers. AND NOW THIS ABJECT FAILURE, IF NOT OPEN DISOBEDIENCE, IS CITED AN EXCUSE TO AVOID NOTIFYING THE TIGER RESERVE.

Can there be a bigger slap than this?

People should not be blamed, they have been misled

The man-animal conflict is borne out of man encroaching into areas traditionally inhabited by animals and not the other way around. Man is the encroacher. 

Having said that, sensitive human beings have learnt to embrace and co-exist with animals in absolute comfort.  A Tiger Reserve encourages this co-habitation. People living in the buffer areas benefit from the visitors to the Tiger Reserves even as the core area of the Tiger Corridors is undisturbed.

Therefore, sensitive politicians who respect the judiciary should not allow any activity that rejects or goes against court judgment. 

As stakeholders, the small number of people who would be displaced from the core areas of Sattari could have been guided by right-thinking leaders to participate in the five-year-long PIL for the Tiger Reserve to intervene in the case and place their point of view. 

In any case, all concerns and arguments regarding rehabilitation and settlement have been addressed clearly by the court, which has severely pulled up the Goa government for its failure in addressing the resettlement issue and using that failure as an excuse to prevent a Tiger reserve.

It is the duty of every politician to ensure that if they get an adverse judgement, the court is never insulted in their backyard. The due process of law can easily be followed.

Let politicians in Goa show that they are above petty interests and for the State and the future of its people by fully supporting and getting the Tiger Reserve notified.