PANJIM: The Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao on Monday alleged that the land mafia was behind the forest fires, especially in the areas covering Mhadei wildlife sanctuary that State reported for nearly 10 days before it was doused, earlier this week.
Addressing media persons, Aleamo said, “These forest fires look planned. I think this is done by the mafia for the purpose of illegally grabbing forest land. This was done intentionally,” he alleged.
Alemao said that it is very important to constitute a high level inquiry commission under a retired High Court judge composed of experts from various
fields to investigate all the fire incidents.
“Although the fire
incidents in hills are attributed to rising temperatures, the possibility of a systematic game plan to destroy the forests cannot be ruled out,” he said.
The LoP also demanded that the State government should make public the
report of the inquiry that has been undertaken by the forest department.
Since March 5, when the first fire broke out in the forests of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, a total of 71 fire spots were attended to and doused completely by March 14.
Alemao had earlier demanded that the government declare these forest lands as ‘No Development Zone’ and should not allow the conversion of the land to Settlement Zones or Eco-Tourism Projects.
The forest fires were first noticed at a location in Satrem village of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary on March 5. The wildfire soon spread to other locations in the sanctuary, while fires erupted simultaneously in several other sanctuaries, including the Mollem, Cotigao and Netravali wildlife sanctuaries.
