Goa government does a U-turn on ‘permanent’ tiger presence in State
ENVIRONMENT – BIODIVERSITY
25 NOVEMBER 2025
- The answer to whether tigers “reside” in Goa depends on who is asking the question.
- The Goa Government, earlier in 2025, argued before a Supreme Court-appointed committee that there was “…no permanent presence of tigers” in the State.
- However, in a separate matter concerning a dispute involving Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra over the sharing of water from the Mahadayi river in Goa, it stated the opposite.
- “…The State of Goa states that there is evidence to show that tigers in Goa are not merely transient animals, but are a resident population, and the forests around Chorla, Mann and Kankumbi comprise a contiguous tiger landscape corridor, to the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka to its south-east and the Anshi Dandeli Tiger Reserve to its south that has around 35 tigers.”
- The latter appears in a 2018 report of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal. “
- The issue of tiger presence (or absence) in Goa has come to the fore following the Goa government challenging a July 2023 order of the Bombay High Court that directed the State to declare the Mhadei sanctuary and other connected regions — as recommended by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA, the nodal Central body tasked with overseeing tiger conservation) — a ‘tiger reserve’ within three months.
- The Goa government filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging this order.
- Its core arguments in the SLP are that, as per the NTCA guidelines, an area of 800-1,000 sq. kms would have to be declared an inviolate space for a tiger reserve. The area already under protection in the State, in the form of parks and sanctuaries, added up to 745 sq. km. “Therefore, to declare an area larger than the already protected area an inviolate space would be an aberration.”
- Secondly, the area that would have to be declared a tiger reserve had a “huge population” of about 1,00,000 individuals spread across several villages. Given the paucity of alternative areas to settle them and the ‘unwillingness’ of this resident population, the move could translate to social unrest.
- In terms of tiger presence, it argued that only three tigers were found through ‘camera trapping’ during the NTCA’s tiger estimation survey of 2018. There was “no evidence” that these tigers were “residents” of the area; there were no cubs or young animals either.
- “The protected area is only a corridor whereby the tigers transit from Maharashtra to Karnataka or vice versa, and the area of Mhadei is only a route, which is used by tigers to transit,” the State argued in its petition. “
- On September 8, 2025, after counsel for the Goa Foundation informed the top court that some proposals for resorts were being approved in the proposed tiger reserve, the court stayed all such activity till final order and judgment.
