PANJIM: Goa appears to have toned-down its stand against its counterpart on the contentious Mhadei diversion issue. More than a month after Karnataka filed a “vague” reply to Goa’s show cause notice over charge of violation under Section 29 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, the State Forest department is still “examining” the reply with no final order yet.
As reported earlier, according to the Advocate General Devidas Pangam, there is no time frame as such to pass the order.
The Goa Chief Wildlife Warden had on January 9, 2023, issued a show cause notice under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 directing Karnataka to stop any activity of diverting/stopping/ reducing the flow of the Kalasa Rivulet and Bandura Rivulet including the construction of any proposed dam, bandhara, canal or any other structure, project, which can be used for diversion of the flow of water from the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
In its reply to the notice, Karnataka failed to contend Goa’s charge of violation under Section 29 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 while arguing that there is no restriction on them in using its share of water from the Mhadei River as allotted by the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) in its award in 2018. Karnataka has also argued that Goa Chief Wild Life Warden has no authority to issue them a notice.
Top forest officials including Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) and Additional Conservator of Forest cum Chief Wildlife Warden preferred not to comment on the issue. However, sources said that the matter is “still under examination”.
“It is a very complex issue. Several aspects need to be taken into account before issuing a final order. The matter is being seriously examined at the department level,” is what emanated from the Forest Department.
The Supreme Court had on February 13 upheld its earlier order of March 2, 2020, restraining Karnataka from undertaking construction work of its proposed Kalasa-Bandura water diversion project without obtaining all the statutory permissions.
While hearing the Interlocutory Application (IA) filed by the Goa government, Karnataka senior counsel Adv Shyam Divan made a statement that no construction has commenced at the Kalasa and Bandura site and that the same will not be undertaken unless the requisite statutory permissions such as forest and Environmental Clearances (ECs) are obtained including that of the Goa Chief Wildlife Warden.
