Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government is likely to undertake a socio-economic study in and around the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary and Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park before declaring portions of these protected areas as tiger reserve.
During the recently held State Wildlife Board meeting, the issue of Project Tiger came up for discussion. SWB has proposed to declare certain portion of the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary and the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park as tiger reserve. The meeting, however, failed to have any detailed discussion as it was felt that there is need for a study to ascertain whether the declaration will have any impact on human habitation there.
The Mhadei WLS that spans 208 sq kms in the Western Ghats was declared as a protected area in 1999 and is contiguous to the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve in the State of Karnataka.
Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuary and Mollem national park is a 240 sq kms protected area located again in the Western Ghats in Sanguem taluka, the eastern border with Karnataka.
The contiguous forests of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra have been named as Tiger Conservation Units (minimum habitat area to support 50 tigers or documented evidence of 50 tigers).
“The Forest Department is likely to go for socio-economic impact study of the area before going ahead with declaring these protected areas as tiger reserve,” sources said. “There are several inhabitants, whose livelihood depends on the forest. With declaration of tiger reserves, more prohibitions would come into picture. Government has to consider all the points,” sources said.
The tiger presence in Goa was first felt in 2002 when the animal census conducted by the State Forest department authenticated the wild cat presence in the Mhadei area. This was followed by 2006 and 2010 census followed by camera trapping method tracing tigers in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
In 2011, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF) had written to the State to consider proposing the Mhadei WLS as a tiger reserve. Government failure to act, forced the Ministry to send another reminder in 2014.
MoEF had noted that the protected areas of Goa and their contiguous forests in Karnataka and Maharashtra are possibly some of the best tiger habitats in the Western Ghats and are in need of protection.
