PANJIM: The Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has asked the Goa government to complete demarcation and digitisation of forest boundaries within six months.
The Executive Committee of the National Authority – Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) – during its meeting held in March, directed all the States to complete demarcation and digitisation of forest boundaries for protection and plantation activities, within six months.
The directions were issued by the Director General of Forest and Special Secretary to MoEF&CC.
As per the State Forest report 2019 (released once in two years), the forest cover in the State stood at 2,237.49 sq km which is 60.44 per cent of the State’s geographical area.
Interestingly, more than a decade after notifying the State’s protected area, the boundaries of five wildlife sanctuaries – Mhadei, Netravali, Bhagwan Mahavir and Mollem – are yet to be demarcated.
Pending the settlement rights under the Wildlife Protection Act, these protected areas, which are declared based on only the preliminary notification, are yet to have their boundaries demarcated.
Spread across 208 sq km, the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary declared as a protected area in 1999, has around 8,500 people residing within the sanctuary housing close to 25 villages.
The Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary since 1969 and the Mollem National Park from 1978 have a human population of around 4,500 while the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary has another 1,000-odd people living within it.
Further, the State has also not notified and demarcated the private forest despite National Green Tribunal (NGT) directives in 2020. The NGT had asked government to notify an area of 46.11 square kilometres as ‘private forest’-the order which was even upheld by the Supreme Court.
