Panaji: Supreme Court on Thursday gave NGO Goa Foundation 2 weeks to file a response to the central empowered committee report on a tiger reserve for Goa. It has now fixed the matter for March 19.The CEC in Nov recommended a tiger reserve of 468.6sqkm but stated that protected areas with significantly higher numbers of households — the southern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary — should be excluded in the first phase of the Goa tiger reserve. The CEC report said govt should initiate the process of notification of the reserve within the next three months, beginning with Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary as the core of the proposed tiger reserve. The CEC stated that the northern part of Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park should be the buffer of the proposed tiger reserve in the first phase.State govt called the CEC’s report erroneous and said a tiger reserve is not necessary for Goa as there are no resident or breeding tigers, only a few transient ones.The affidavit filed by the additional principal chief conservator of forests stated that Goa’s wildlife sanctuaries and national park provide an excellent corridor for tiger movement between Karnataka and Maharashtra, and that Goa does not need a tiger reserve.The SC is hearing Goa govt’s appeal against Bombay HC’s 2023 order directing it to notify the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and other contiguous areas as a tiger reserve.
