SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Nearly two-decades after being notified as wildlife sanctuaries and a national park, the boundaries of the protected areas of Mhadei, Netravali, Bhagwan Mahaveer and Mollem are yet to be demarcated pending the settlement of rights under Wildlife Protection Act. Interestingly, these protected areas have been declared based on only the preliminary notification.
After the declaration of Mhadei as WLS in 1999, it took almost a decade for the government to appoint a full-fledged range forest officer (RFO) in 2020 and bring the area under the purview of north Goa wildlife division of the forest.
A senior forest official told Herald that protected areas of Mhadei, Netravali, Bhagwan Mahaveer and Mollem are yet to be demarcated. “Pending settlement of claims under Wildlife Act, we cannot go ahead and demarcate the land. That is also the reason why the final notification on these protected areas is also not yet been issued so far,” official said.
The State government has appointed a Revenue Officer cum Collector (ROC) under Wildlife Protection Act for Mhadei, Mollem and Netravali, for settlement of rights after the preliminary notifications were issued.
The official said that the ROCs are working on the claims but it is not an easy task, as it requires a lot of documentation and field study. “The department is following up with the ROCs for early settlement of rights,” official said.
Asked about declaring protected areas, especially Mhadei as a tiger reserve, the officer explained pending settlement of human rights they are in no position to take a call on it. “To declare any area as tiger reserve, it needs to be free from human settlement,” the officer said, adding, “Without settling the claims if we declare any area as tiger habitat, it will further aggregate the issue.”
During its recent meeting in May, the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) had asked all the States to undertake de-notification or rationalisation of boundaries of the protected areas across all the States for better conservation of wildlife and so also to promote eco-tourism.
