Team Herald
PANJIM: With the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) pitching for a tiger reserve corridor along Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Goa government has finally expressed its desire to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, located along the Western Ghats, as a tiger reserve for the protection and preservation of big cat.
The final decision on declaring the sanctuary a tiger reserve will be taken after receiving reports about the animal’s presence, which is expected next year. The Forest Department is currently undertaking a tiger census in the State to ascertain the existence of the wild cat and this will continue till 2017.
“A study is on to get the exact report on the presence of the tiger in the State, especially in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, which according to environmentalists is a tiger habitat,” Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar told Herald.
“The State will take all the necessary steps to preserve and protect tigers. The government is not averse to declaring any sanctuary or any part of the State as a tiger reserve,” the Minister added.
The preliminary census report of the State has confirmed the presence of the wild cat in the sanctuary. The camera-trap technique used by the forest department in a joint initiate with WII in 2014-15 had shown the presence of tigers.
Mhadei wildlife sanctuary, which is contiguous to the Dandeli Tiger Reserve, is a 208 sq kms protected area in the Western Ghats. In June, 2011, then Union MoEF minister Jairam Ramesh had written to the then Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat urging the State to consider proposing the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve.
Arlekar said that the census data would be placed before the State Wildlife Board for recommendation before the National Wildlife Board (NWB) to declare Mhadei sanctuary as a tiger corridor. “Without proper data, we cannot place any proposal before the NWB,” he added.
Meanwhile, environmentalist and NWB member Rajendra Kerkar has decided to petition the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to declare Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve, following proper conditions laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
“It is a known fact that the sanctuary is a tiger habitat. The survey by WII has authenticated the fact. I would urge the government to consider this survey and declare the core of the sanctuary as a tiger reserve,” he said.
The Forest department census of 2002, 2006 and in 2010 had showed the presence of the tiger in Goa. Though the Forest Department failed to get result in the 2006 census, the 2010 census had stumbled upon the presence of five tigers in Goa’s wilds, with an increased number of leopards and wild dogs.
