Amid years-long legal tussle, SC-appointed panel recommends notifying tiger reserve in Goa

In July 2023, the High Court of Bombay at Goa directed the Goa government to notify a tiger reserve in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and other protected areas within three months. Subsequently, the Goa government filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order. The Supreme Court ordered a status quo in the Mhadei-Cotigao area and referred the matter to a Central Empowered Committee in September and sought a report within six weeks.

In its report to the Supreme Court on November 21, the committee has observed that in the initial phase, a tiger reserve, “if notified, should be confined to those areas which are contiguous to the Kali Tiger Reserve [of Karnataka] and have very little or no human habitation.”

The committee recommended that the protected areas proposed for inclusion in the Goa tiger reserve comprise Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary as the core of the proposed tiger reserve and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park along with the northern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary as the buffer zone of the proposed reserve. The CEC opined that such a phased approach is likely to minimise disturbance to local communities, while ensuring that the most ecologically sensitive and least inhabited areas are brought under enhanced protection at the earliest stage. The total area proposed for notification as the tiger reserve is 468.6 sq km.

“This area is fully contiguous with the 1,345 sq km core and buffer of the Kali Tiger Reserve and together they form an integrated protected landscape of approximately 1,814 sq km. The integration of the proposed Goa tiger reserve with this large and established conservation complex will facilitate unhindered tiger movement, ensure genetic and demographic continuity, and support natural dispersal from the source population in Kali. Collectively, the combined core and buffer systems of both reserves will constitute a unified transboundary conservation unit, capable of sustaining long term tiger population recovery and enhancing the overall resilience of the Western Ghats tiger metapopulation,” the CEC observed in the report.

The CEC said the protected areas of Goa that are directly contiguous with the core of the Kali Tiger Reserve and have relatively few households, namely Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary (50 households) and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (41 households), should be considered for inclusion in the first phase of the proposed tiger reserve. “Their ecological adjacency to the Kali core makes them vital for ensuring landscape-level connectivity and enabling natural dispersal of tigers into Goa, and hence these two shall form part of the core of the proposed Goa tiger reserve,” the report said.

Crucially, the CEC has recommended that the protected areas with significantly higher numbers of households, such as the southern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary (over 560 households) and Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary (approximately 612 households), shall not be included in the first phase of the proposed tiger reserve. It said that the protected areas with a relatively large number of households, such as the southern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, do not share a boundary with either the core or buffer of the Kali Tiger Reserve. “Similarly, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary…shares only a limited stretch of boundary with the buffer of the Kali Tiger Reserve. These areas may, therefore, be considered, if necessary, at a later stage, after adequate consultation, confidence-building measures, and community preparedness have been undertaken,” the CEC said. “…Their incorporation, if found appropriate, may be examined in a second phase, after securing local support and adequately addressing livelihood and rehabilitation concerns,” it said.

The CEC said that during its field visits to protected areas and interactions with public representatives and government officials, it observed that a strong apprehension exists among sections of the local population that the declaration of a tiger reserve would result in displacement and acquisition of private land by the government. The CEC suggested that the state government shall undertake structured and sustained awareness programmes to clearly communicate that the declaration of a tiger reserve does not entail compulsory relocation of villages from buffer areas nor automatic acquisition of private land. The CEC also suggested that the state government shall prepare a tiger conservation plan, in consultation with NTCA, immediately after the declaration of the tiger reserve.

Claude Alvares, director of the Goa Foundation, an environmental NGO and respondent in the matter, said, “The CEC report confirms the High Court’s judgment on the necessity of a tiger reserve for Goa. It says the tigers would get a much larger area, if the core zone of Kali Tiger Reserve is aligned with the Netravali and Cotigao wildlife sanctuaries from Goa, since these protected areas already form a contiguous area. The weak point of the report is the exclusion of the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary from the reserve at present. The CEC has recommended this be considered in the second phase, after the fears and anxieties of the local population are assuaged by state government’s efforts.”

The Indian Express had earlier reported that Goa government, in its submissions before the CEC, argued that “lack of resident tigers” and “the mere presence of a few transient tigers passing through the area” does not necessitate declaring the area as a tiger reserve, “when the protections afforded to such an area are in itself sufficient towards ensuring adequate safeguards to the transit of tigers and other animals.”