In a significant development for wildlife conservation, the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has delivered a major recommendation that could reshape Goa's protected areas. The expert panel has proposed declaring a comprehensive tiger reserve spanning 468.6 square kilometers and urged the state government to initiate the notification process within the next three months.
Phased Approach to Tiger Reserve Implementation
The recommendation comes as the Supreme Court hears the Goa government's appeal against the Bombay High Court's 2023 order that directed the state to notify the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and surrounding areas as a tiger reserve. After conducting two rounds of stakeholder consultations in Goa since last month, the CEC, chaired by Siddhanta Das, submitted its detailed report to the top court on November 21.
The committee proposed a two-phase implementation strategy that begins with including areas having minimal human population. For the first phase, the CEC recommended establishing Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary (211 sq km) and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (85.7 sq km) as the core of the proposed tiger reserve. The buffer zone would comprise the northern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary (64.9 sq km) and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park (107 sq km).
Areas with higher population density - specifically the southern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary (approximately 560 households) and Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary (612 households) - have been suggested for exclusion from the initial phase. The CEC emphasized that these regions would require extensive community consultations, sustained awareness campaigns, and confidence-building measures before considering their inclusion in a potential second phase.
Addressing Community Concerns and Ecological Benefits
Recognizing public apprehension about displacement and land acquisition, the CEC made crucial clarifications in its report. The committee strongly recommended that the state government undertake structured awareness programs to clearly communicate that declaring a tiger reserve doesn't entail compulsory relocation of villages from buffer areas nor automatic acquisition of private land.
"Securing the informed cooperation and confidence of local communities is critical for the long-term success and sustainability of tiger conservation efforts in the state of Goa," stated Das in the report. The CEC stressed that incorporating higher-population areas would only be examined in a second phase after securing local support and adequately addressing livelihood and rehabilitation concerns.
Significant Ecological Advantages
The proposed Goa tiger reserve offers substantial ecological benefits through landscape connectivity. The total recommended area of 468.6 sq km is fully contiguous with the 1,345 sq km core and buffer of the Kali Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. Together, they would form an integrated protected landscape of approximately 1,814 sq km, creating one of the most significant conservation corridors in the Western Ghats.
This contiguity is expected to significantly strengthen landscape-level connectivity and ecological functionality. The integration with the large and established Kali Tiger Reserve conservation complex will facilitate unhindered tiger movement, ensure genetic and demographic continuity, and support natural dispersal from the source population. 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.
State Government's Opposition
The Goa government has mounted a strong challenge against the tiger reserve proposal in the Supreme Court. The state argues that the High Court's order transgresses the powers and autonomy of the state government and compels it to issue a notification without adherence to due process of law, contrary to the procedure contemplated under the Wildlife Protection Act.
Among its key arguments, the state government highlighted that approximately 20% of Goa's geographical area is already declared as protected areas. These form an elongated strip of around 84 km in length with varying breadths, which the government claims renders the creation of core and buffer areas required for a tiger reserve geographically incongruous.
Additionally, the reconstituted state board for wildlife, in its meeting on July 12, 2023, unanimously resolved that declaring the existing protected areas as a tiger reserve would neither serve any significant purpose nor be feasible. This decision considered the small size of the protected areas and the substantial human population residing in and around them.
The Supreme Court's final decision on this matter will have far-reaching implications for wildlife conservation in Goa and set important precedents for balancing ecological protection with state autonomy and community interests in environmentally sensitive regions across India.
