SC panel suggests creation of a Goa tiger reserve in phases
ENVIRONMENT – BIODIVERSITY
27 NOVEMBER 2025
- A Supreme Court-appointed committee has recommended the creation of a tiger reserve in Goa, but in a phased manner, so as to first incorporate areas with a lower human presence.
- The top court is expected to consider the report of its Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in the next hearing of the case that involves the Goa government and the Goa Foundation, a non-government organisation.
- The CEC came into the picture after the Goa government challenged a Bombay High Court order of July 2023, which directed the State to notify five protected areas — the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary, and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, collectively referred to as the “Mhadei WLS and Other Areas” — as a tiger reserve, within a period of three months.
- The Goa government was reluctant to have the areas be declared as a tiger reserve on the grounds that nearly “one lakh people” would be affected, though it later conceded in its own affidavit that there were only about 1,274 households in the 33 villages within the five protected areas, translating to approximately 5,000 to 6,000 individuals.
- It also claimed that there were no “resident” tigers in Goa, arguing that the handful that pass through Goan forests were a “transient” population.
- The committee recommended that Goan parks and sanctuaries “directly contiguous” to the Kali Tiger Reserve in adjoining Karnataka, which is known to host a permanent tiger presence, form the “core” part of the Goa reserve.
- This means that the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary (50 households) and Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (41 households), adding up to a 296.7 sq. km. area, will be incorporated into the core zone of the proposed Goa Tiger Reserve in the first phase.
- The total area proposed for notification as the Goa Tiger Reserve is 468.60 sq. km.
