On June 28, it will be a ten long years since former Union Minister for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh, in 2011, wrote to Goa Government suggesting to submit a proposal to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) as a “tiger reserve” since “there are evidences to show that tigers in Goa are not merely transient animals but a resident pollution as well”.
Within a span of three years, in 2014, yet another ex Union Minister Jayanti Natarajan sought Goa’s response to a tiger reserve, which was followed by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) mooting out that tiger reserve to be carved out from uninhabited core areas of Goa’s protected wild fearing “extinction of the species”.
Not too far, last year, following death of a four-member tiger family in Guleli village in Sattari, the Centre-appointed probe team, had even recommended that State should take immediate steps for enhancing the legal status of MWL to that of a tiger reserve.
Unfortunately, neither that suggestion from the Union Ministers, nor the recommendations by Central agencies, had been acted upon by the successive State governments of Digambar Kamat, (late) Manohar Parrikar, Laxmikant Parsekar and now Dr Pramod Sawant. Since 2012, the BJP led government is ruling the State.
“We were never able to ascertain that tigers are resident pollution…they were transit animal coming from Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve of neighbouring Karnataka. Despite that, during my tenure as Forest Minister, the State wildlife board had moved a proposal for tiger reserve, but with new government coming in, in 2017, the proposal remained on paper. I believe, our forest department failed to put in required efforts to clear the proposal,” former Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar said.
The Mhadei WLS, that spans just 208 sq kms in the Western Ghats declared as the protected area in 1999 is contiguous to the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve. The contiguous forests of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra and the reserve forests and wildlife sanctuary of Radhanagari in Karnataka, Chandoli national park and the reserve forests of Purna and Dodamarg in Maharashtra have been named as Tiger Conservation Units (TCU) (minimum habitat area should support 50 tigers or have documented evidence of 50 tigers).
And hence, the Goa Forest Department often claims that the tigers spotted in the State are transited.
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 Mhadei area. This was followed by 2006 and 2010 census that also recorded tiger presence in that area. Though, forest department failed to get the result of 2006 census, the 2010 census had stunned upon presence of five tigers in Goa’s wild, with increase in number of leopards and wild dogs.
In 2009, few locals working in an eco-tourism resort at Chorla Ghat sighted a tiger in the region. But the confirmation of the presence of a male tiger came to light after villagers from Chorla and surrounding areas reported sightings and viewed pugmarks in several locations in the Ghats. All of sudden, a fear was developed amongst the locals residing in the areas.
In 2010 the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) described the Goa stretch of the Western Ghats as an important tiger corridor between Anshi-Dandeli tiger reserves and the Sahyadris and confirmed occupancy of tigers in the State’s forest.
Further, the Forest Department officials recorded tiger pug marks in Mhadei area again in 2011 during the Wildlife Census conducted with the help of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
As the forest department adopted the modern technology of camera tap method to authenticate the presence of tiger in the State wild, in April 2013, a tigress was spotted in areas of Mhadei WLS of Dongurli panchayat, another tigress and tiger were spotted in January and March in 2014 at Ivre and Zhadane forest area of Mhadei.
In 2017, five tigers — one male, two females and two cubs were spotted in MLS.
“The Mhadei region lies along the Vagheri hills which means ‘abode of tiger’. The locals residing in this area are very much aware about the presence of tiger in the wild. Even the local forest officials here are well versed with this fact. But despite all this, no steps are taken for preservation and conservation of tigers in the State,” renowned environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar said.
“The State’s reluctance to admit the fact that Goa’s protected areas are tiger habitat is basically to grant protection to the iron ore mining players. Large chunk of forest and protected areas are diverted for mining,” Kerkar charged.
In August 2011, there was public announcement that “in principle” approval was accorded by the NTCA for creation of new tiger reserve at Mhadei WLS. Under section 38V of the Wildlife Protection Act on 1972, the State Government was authorised to notify the Mhadei WLS as tiger reserve. The proposal was even supported by the local community who believed that the same would help in long-term protection of bio-diversity rich areas.
However, nothing actually worked out in that direction, even though some efforts were put in by then CM Laxmikant Parsekar and Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar in 2016.
For the very first time, in February, 2016, the State Wildlife Board head had accorded its approval to the proposal to declare all the protected areas as Tiger Reserves and to grant necessary support to the human settlement residing in those areas. The proposal was supposed to be forwarded to the NTCA and National Wildlife Board (NWB) for final approval.
But five year down the line, the proposal continues to be mere document.
In the middle of all this, in January 2020, a carcass of a tigress and her two curbs were found in the Mhadei WLS. Days later, a tiger body was also recovered. The probe had revealed that a local Dhangar family poisoned the tiger family in a fit of rage.
The Chief Wildlife Warden Santosh Kumar had claimed that despite the four deaths, the adult tiger population in the state could still be four. “The tigress with her cubs was an addition pointed by cameras early in 2019. The cubs were young, which means the census in 2017 couldn’t have counted them. So our official figure still is four adult tigers.”
The environmentalists in the State have been lobbying hard to preserve this wild cat since the first tiger killing case was reported in 2009 in the wilds of Keri in Sattari.
“Mhadei is the catchment area of important rivers like Mhadei, Malaprabha, Pandhari, Bailnadi, Tillari, and making it a tiger reserve will help consolidate the habitat and address the water sharing issues of Goa for posterity. It will also boost and strengthen the State case for Mhadei river water diversion before the Tribunal,” green activist Ramesh Gawas said.
Goa was not a traditional home for tigers but in the last few years, tigers from neighbouring Bimgad and Anshi Dandeli tiger reserves had visited forests areas in Sattari because of biotic pressures. The conducive atmosphere also helped the animal to make its presence felt for long within the State wild, adding up to local species.
