Notify Mhadei sanctuary as tiger reserve within 3 months: HC to Goa

The NTCA has suggested on multiple occasions that a tiger reserve be carved out from the uninhabited core zones of Goa’s protected areas and has requested the state to speed up the process of notifying the Mhadei sanctuary and certain contiguous areas as a tiger reserve.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Goa Foundation, an environment monitoring group, which had sought directions to notify Mhadei sanctuary and other areas as a tiger reserve.

The Bench directed the state to set up anti-poaching camps at strategic locations in wildlife sanctuaries and national parks within six months. This was another step sought by the petitioner.

Had a detailed discussion on the implications of the HC decision regarding giving directions to the State Government to notify Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and peripheral areas as a Tiger Reserve. I had a detailed discussion with Hon’ble CM @DrPramodPSawant and also with the Learned…

— VishwajitRane (@visrane) July 24, 2023

The court also directed the state to determine and settle the rights and claims of Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers, following the law “as expeditiously as possible and preferably within 12 months from today”, and take emergent steps to ensure that there are no encroachments in protected forest areas.

In June 2011, Jairam Ramesh, then Union minister of state for environment and forests, had written to the then Goa chief minister, Digambar Kamat, requesting him to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, situated in the Sattari Taluka of North Goa, as a tiger reserve. He had pointed out that “there is evidence to show that tigers in Goa are not merely transient animals but are a resident population as well”.

In 2020, after a tigress and three cubs were found dead inside the sanctuary, and a probe revealed that the deaths occurred due to poisoning, the long-standing demand by environmentalists and conservationists for a tiger reserve was renewed.

Goa Foundation’s lawyer, Norma Alvares, told the court that there was no justification for the state to ignore Ramesh’s 2011 letter and that the NTCA’s repeated recommendations were binding on the state government under Section 38 V (1) of the Wildlife Protection Act.

The petitioner’s lawyer also said that the state forest authorities, with experts’ aid, have already prepared proposals and plans for notifying the tiger reserve, but the State Board for Wildlife stalled the proposal twice, because of which four tigers died from poisoning in the Mhadei sanctuary.

Advocate General Devidas Pangam told the court that the state was not opposed to notifying the area as a tiger reserve, submitting that “the time was not right to make such a declaration, issue such a notification or even forward any proposal to the NTCA”. He told the court that further studies were necessary and “the rights of forest dwellers also needed to be settled entirely before such steps could be taken”.

The Advocate General told the court that the communications relied on by the petitioner contained only “suggestions or advice” and, even otherwise, the provisions of Section 38-V (1) were only directory and not mandatory. He told the court that the protected areas under the Wildlife Protection Act enjoy the same level of protection for all flora and fauna as in a tiger reserve and “no additional protection was necessary for the tiger because all wild animals deserve equal protection”.

Pulling up the government, the court said that all recommendations of NTCA strongly urged the state to notify this area as a tiger reserve at the earliest, “failing which the State of Goa may become a death trap for tigers dispersing in this landscape”.

“After the unfortunate death of four tigers in the Mhadei WLS [wildlife sanctuary] in January 2020, it was expected by all concerned that the area would be notified as a tiger reserve to ensure a more significant level of protection for the tiger and the tiger corridor. However, even this incident was sought to be trivialised and downplayed,” the court said.

The court held that the provisions of Section 38-V (1) of the Wildlife Protection Act are mandatory and the state government was bound to notify the Mhadei sanctuary and other areas as a tiger reserve, given the NTCA recommendations.

“The vesting of absolute discretion in the State Government to unreasonably delay or even refuse to notify a tiger reserve despite recommendations from the expert high-powered central body like NTCA, even with no cogent reasons, would spell doom for the cause of tiger protection,” the court observed.

Stating that Goa has failed to determine and settle the rights of forest dwellers, in defiance of the directions of the Supreme Court, the court said: “As if this was insufficient, the State of Goa now puts forth its own lapses as an excuse for not notifying this area as a tiger reserve… Based upon such reason and by trying to take undue advantage of its lapse, the State is not justified in not notifying the said area as a tiger reserve or contending that it would notify the said area as a tiger reserve only after rights and claims of the forest dwellers in the area are settled…”

“There appears to be some misimpression that the moment the area is notified as a tiger reserve, there would be large-scale displacements of populations and the rights of the forest dwellers would be drastically affected. This needs to be corrected,” the court observed.

Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane said he had a detailed discussion on implications of the High Court’s decision with the chief minister and the advocate general.

“After examining the HC order, we shall explore all options before approaching the Supreme Court to have this order vacated. We respect the decision taken by the HC, but as a State Government, we will stand by the decision taken by the State Wildlife Board,” Rane tweeted.

The State Board for Wildlife had recently rejected the proposal to set up a tiger reserve contending that “the declaration of a tiger reserve at the current stage would be premature” and “not feasible”. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said that being a small state, Goa did not fit the criteria under the Wildlife Act and the NTCA’s guidelines.