PANAJI
In no relief to the Goa government, the Supreme Court on Monday maintained the status quo on any developments in the Mhadei-Cotigao tiger reserve areas, while also referring the matter to the Central Empowered Committee for a report within two weeks.
When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the Court was informed that following directions from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the Goa government demarcated a 745.18sq km area of Mhadei-Cotigao region as the Tiger Reserve, which is why the High Court had directed the State government to notify the same within three months.
NGO Goa Foundation, confirming the development, stated that the apex court has now fixed the matter in six weeks after hearing the parties on the CEC report. “CEC will hear all stakeholders including the petitioner and government,” NGO Director Claude Alvares said.
The Supreme Court is hearing a petition filed by the State challenging the High Court's order to declare the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and its surrounding areas as a tiger reserve. The SC, last week, had listed the matter as priority before Chief Justice.
The Apex bench stayed the developmental works in the protected areas after Norma Alvares, senior counsel appearing for the Goa Foundation, impressed upon the Court that while the appeal was pending before the Court, the State government was already approving so-called eco-tourism commercial projects in the core zone of the proposed tiger reserve.
The High Court, on July 24, 2023 directed the State to notify the sanctuary as a tiger reserve within three months. The State approached the SC in September last year, even as it is also facing a contempt plea in the High Court for failing to comply with the order.
On Monday, when the matter was called out for hearing, senior counsel appearing for the Goa government, Mukul Rohatgi, was not in Court, which was strongly objected to by the Court.
The Bench called his conduct “unfair to the Court” since the matter had been listed as high on the board. Alvares informed that the matter was kept aside and taken up when Rohatgi appeared in Court thereafter.
Rohatgi argued that the tiger reserve would take out 20 percent of Goa’s 3,700 sq km from human use, even though the tiger reserve was being carved out from the existing five notified wildlife sanctuaries and national park.
He also referred to the fact that the minimum requirement for a tiger reserve was 1,000 sq km and that 15,000 families would have to be relocated if the reserve were notified.
Norma Alvares, on the other hand, informed the Bench that areas for the proposed reserve were already notified as wildlife sanctuaries and national park some as far back as 1967 and 1999/2000 and that not an inch of Goa’s land outside the existing protected areas was to be notified as a Tiger Reserve as per the area already demarcated by the Forest Department.
On the extent of a tiger reserve, she said the NTCA’s recommendation is to result in a Tiger Reserve that combines the Tiger Reserve areas of Kali and other sanctuaries in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Alvares also referred to Justice Gavai’s own 2024 judgment in the Corbett Tiger Reserve case on the importance of Tiger Reserves and tiger corridors, submitting that the State government really had no case.
