PANAJI
The tiger is back in the news in Goa!
Preparations by the Forest Department to start an extensive survey seeking to establish the presence of tigers in the state has already triggered heartburn in Sattari taluka.
The ‘popular’ heartburn has now forced the political strongman from the area, cabinet minister Vishwajit Rane, a self-confessed wildlife photographer, who habitually posts photos of wildlife in India and Africa, into stalling the All India Tiger Estimation survey.
“I will write to the PCCF not to conduct any survey. There is no need for a survey. I will inform the Chief Minister and then move a note. I will urge the Chief Minister to stop the survey,” Rane has said.
The former Health Minister is the seniormost minister in Pramod Sawant’s cabinet after the Chief Minister himself.
Tigers have not just been steeped in Goan mythology and folklore, but have also been a source of controversy over the last decade and more.
In 2009, one female tiger was virtually cut into half at the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary, after it got snared into a metal trap. Just two years ago, four tigers, including cubs were poisoned to death, resulting in a series of arrests in the same sanctuary.
The possibility of notifying a wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve may come with a fresh set of restrictions and broadening of buffer zones around the protected areas is one of the causes of heartburn for the residents there.
The residents of Caranzol, many of whom have bunched under the Sattari Bhumiputra Samiti for example, are up in arms against the official survey and have demanded that the government solve their land rights issue first.
Goa’s forest cover had got a shot in the arm in 1999, during the tenure of retired General late J F R Jacob as Governor. It was during President’s Rule that the government notified two sanctuaries in Mhadei and Netravali, in addition to already protected areas like Bhagwan Mahavir sanctuary, Bondla, Salim Ali bird sanctuary, etc.
According to Rane, however, Jacob had no right to facilitate the decision, especially in absence of a popular government.
“The confusion was created by General Jacob, on June 4, 1999. No one gave him a right when an elected government was not in place. They changed the landscape as if running a paintbrush over it,” Rane said.
Interestingly, calls for setting up a tiger reserve in Goa, have been vociferous, even as state governments -- irrespective of party affiliations -- have studiously ignored such requests.
In 2011, two years after the death of the lone female tiger, a National Wildlife Board member Prerna Bindra wrote to then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to set up a reserve. Kamat chose to ignore the request.
In 2020, the National Tiger Conservation Authority, whose officials were in Goa to probe the death of tigers, had alleged mismanagement in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary calling the protected area a “death-trap” for the animals, while also recommending the setting up of a tiger reserve.
In a way, Rane is not bucking an establishment trend, when he claims that he would insist on stalling the survey by writing to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.
“People do not have to worry about anything. This is a people’s government and we will resolve the issues of the people on priority. There is no question of making people insecure... I will write to the PCCF not to conduct any survey,” Rane said.
