HC gives tigers their stripes in state, tells Goa to declare reserve in 3 mts

PANAJI: In a major setback to the state government, the high court of Bombay at Goa, in a historic judgment delivered on Monday, directed it to issue a notification to declare the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary (WLS) and its surrounding areas as a tiger reserve in three months.

The court also directed the government to take all steps to prepare a tiger conservation plan within the same time period.
"This court cannot blink at the reality that often at the state level, regional, parochial, anthropomorphic, and times, even narrow political considerations would prevail over the more significant national interests involved in conserving and protecting the tiger and the tiger habitat," stated the judgment by a division bench of justices Mahesh Sonak and Bharat Deshpande.
The high court judgment came days after the state government turned down a proposal to declare a tiger reserve. "While the state's claim to steer clear of the Orwellian manner of treating some animals more equal than the others is appreciable, this should not be achieved by collectively reducing the level of protection for all wild animals, as the record unfortunately shows," the high court observed.
Set up anti-poaching camps in sanctuaries, says HC
The high court directed the state government to determine and settle the rights and claims of Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers following the law as expeditiously as possible, and preferably within 12 months of the judgment.
Disposing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Goa Foundation, the high court stated: “We direct the state government to notify the Mhadei WLS and other areas referred to in National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA’s) communications (and the plans prepared by the Goa forest department officials) as a tiger reserve under Section 38-V (1) of the WLPA within three months from today.”Starting in 2011, the Union government and the NTCA have repeatedly pursued the issue of the Goa government notifying the Mhadei WLS and certain other contiguous areas as a tiger reserve. In January 2020, the petitioner and other environmentalists also pursued this issue after a tigress and her three cubs died from poisoning. However, since the state refused to budge, the petitioner instituted the present petition.
“We direct the NTCA to render full assistance to the state government for completing the above process, and after that, to expeditiously process the state government’s tiger conservation plan and take a decision thereon within three months of receiving the tiger conservation plan,” the high court stated.The high court also directed the state to set up anti-poaching camps at strategic locations to be staffed by forest guards, watchers, etc, in the WLS and national parks in Goa. “This exercise must be completed within six months,” the HC directed.The court also told the state and the forest department to take urgent steps to ensure that there are no encroachments in the protected forest areas like WLS and national parks pending notification of the tiger reserve, and even after that.
In his arguments, advocate general Devidas Pangam said that the state was not opposed to notifying the area as a tiger reserve. However, he submitted that the time was not right to make such a declaration, issue such a notification, or even forward any proposal to the NTCA.
“The state, in its affidavit, had nowhere stated that it did not wish to send a proposal to the NTCA or to notify the area as a tiger reserve,” Pangam said. “However, further studies were necessary and the rights of the forest dwellersalso needed to be settled entirely before such steps could be taken.”
Counsel for the petitioner, Norma Alvares, said that there was no justification for the state to ignore with impunity the Union environment minister’s letter regards notifying Mhadei WLS and other contiguous areas as a tiger reserve.
“There was a breach of statutory duty on the part of the state government in not notifying the tiger reserve despite repeated recommendations from the NTCA,” said Alvares.
“Further, the NTCA warned that a further delay in notifying the tiger reserve and implementing a robust protection regime might lead to Goa becoming a death trap for the tigers dispersing in the western ghats landscape.”