PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa, on Monday, heard closing arguments on behalf of the Goa Foundation and the State of Goa on a PIL, whose final order and directions will have telling and major ramifications on the protection of Mhadei and the overdue notification of the Mhadei forests as a Tiger Reserve.
Though the PIL was filed way back in 2020 when four tigers were killed in the Mhadei forests, the final order in the PIL is likely to have a fallout on the issue of the diversion of Mhadei’s waters to Karnataka. A Tiger reserve is an ecologically protected area that does not permit any water diversion from tigers’ natural habitats.
The line of arguments has been that the National Tiger Conservation Authority, as well as the State of Goa, has both refrained from using the powers they have, under law and procedure, to declare Mhadei as a Tiger Reserve, even though there is sufficient correspondence and the strength of acts to have done it easily.
There are two essential documents to prove this, among others:
1. Letter dated March 31, 2016, by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to Goa saying “it would be in the fitness of things” to notify the Cotigao Mhadei Forest Complex as a Tiger Reserve
Dr H S Negi IG Forests (N) wrote to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) stating that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (MTCA) had conducted a status of Tigers. That exercise revealed that the Cotigao Mhadei Forest complex “Has recorded tiger presence, meaning thereby having potential to head tiger population.
The Forest Ministry further “requested” that the State government may send a proposal to the NTCA under the Wild Life Protection Act. Seven years have passed. No proposal has been sent to the NTCA by the Goa government.
2. Office Note of the Goa Forest Dept dated March 23 2018, on “the proposal for the Constitution of Tiger Reserve for the State of Goa”
Section 4 of the note, signed by Deputy Conservator of Forests Vikas Dessai, recorded 4 key tiger habitats in the country. Under sub-section (iv), it noted the Western Ghats landscape complex (Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa with 776 tigers).
While both parties must wait for the Court to pass its order, many stakeholders believe that it will settle many issues not only for Forest and Tiger Conservation but for the River Mhadei itself and its protection from diversion.
