No Resident Tigers In Goa, No Need For Protected Area For Them: What Goa's Forest Minister Said
Goa Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane has ruled out the possibility of setting up a tiger reserve in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, stating that the big cats are non-residents.
According to estimates, there are 3-6 tigers in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in North Goa, but according to Rane, they are non-residents.
"I have been hearing about tiger for the last few days. The tiger enters Goa through a corridor before exiting (the state). There are no resident tigers in Goa. So there is no need to set up a tiger reserve in Goa and as long as I am the minister, there is no question of a tiger reserve," Rane said.
The coastal state is home to five wildlife sanctuaries and a national park and is a known corridor for big cat movement between Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Long-standing demand
Environmentalists have been demanding to declare the entire area around Mahadayi wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve.
This is not the first time the Goa government has said no to the idea of a tiger reserve in the state.
While the government has argued that the big cats seen in Mhadei are just passing through there, environmentalists allege that mining interests are behind the reluctance.
If Mhadei is declared a tiger reserve, the mineral-rich region will become off-limits to the mining industry.
Minister's opposition well documented?
This is not the first time Minister Rane has made his opposition to the idea of a tiger reserve in Mhadei, which falls in his constituency, public.
In February 2020, Rane who was then the Health Minister of Goa opposed the demand by environmental activists and suggested that there should be a tiger corridor to facilitate the movement of the big cats from Karnataka.?
"A tiger reserve will impact our development. The laws governing tiger reserves are very strict. The development will get stalled. No one has the right to declare a tiger reserve. It is the people’s land. A tiger corridor is necessary,” he had said in February 2020.
Tiger deaths in Goa
In 2020, Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary had made headlines after four tigers -- an adult and three cubs were found dead there in four days, in what was later revealed as an act of poisoning.
Some people who were living near the sanctuary had deliberately poisoned the tiger family after the big cats killed some cattle.
Punish the tigers
It was not just Rane, who then took a position against tigers.
Churchill Alemao, who was then a MLA from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had suggested that tigers should be?"punished" for eating cows?as humans are punished for the same.?
"What is the punishment for a tiger when he eats a cow? When a human being eats cow, he is punished," Churchill Alemao said. As far as wildlife is concerned, tigers are important but as far as human beings are concerned, cows are important, Alemao had said.?
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