PANAJI: Environmentalists and wildlife lovers were exultant after the then governor, M M Jacob, notified Mhadei and Neturlim as wildlife sanctuaries during the brief period of President's rule in 1999. It was considered a clever move, as it could have been stymied by politicians during popular rule. Yet, almost a decade later, the protection remains on paper and has not been extended to the ground level to conserve one of few surviving biodiversity hotspots in the world the Western ghats.
No exercise has been undertaken to extend protective fencing to demarcate the two sanctuaries after they were notification under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Further, the authorities have dragged their feet over creating requisite manpower to protect these areas, endowed with rich ecological wealth.
"There are neither checkposts nor entry points for the two sanctuaries and the infrastructure on the ground, when compared with that available at other sanctuaries, is sorely lacking," Nirmal Kulkarni, a wildlife researcher said. Environmentalists also allege that illegal activities, such as poaching and deforestation, continue unchecked in the sanctuaries.
Incidentally, barring the appointment of a forest settlement officer for Neturlim, ostensibly to look into requests of people's settlement rights, the forest department has not even handed over the jurisdiction of the two sanctuaries to the wildlife division, which is a primary requirement.
"The jurisdiction of these sanctuaries should have been transferred lock, stock and barrel as soon as they were notified. A workforce should have been created. But those looking after the Molem and Cotigao sanctuaries have been given added responsibilities," a forest department official said. The dual jurisdiction leads to confusion as the two divisions pass the buck when it comes to the crunch, sources say.
Pressure from politicians of the areas is what is delaying provision of infrastructure to the sanctuaries, say others, even as demands for the denotification of the sanctuaries have been increasing during the last few years.
"There is no management plan for these two sanctuaries," a forest officer conceded. Cotigao, Mollem and Bondla have nature interpretation centres and other facilities such as rest houses, tents and other facilities.
Environmentalists are irked by some politicians' moves to seek denotification of the sanctuaries and also the lack of political will in protecting them. Says Claude Alvares, environmentalist, "All actions, including appointment of a settlement officer for Neturlim, stem from the motive of allowing mining leases (55 in Neturlim)," Alvares concluded.
However, Shashi Kumar, chief conservator of forests said that retaining these sanctuaries with the territorial division is not an issue and also denied that it weakens responsibility. "The deputy conservator of forests with territorial jurisdiction have been declared wildlife wardens of these sanctuaries and when a plan to have two separate wildlife divisions in Goa comes through, then these sanctuaries will get exclusive protection," he said.
Though he could not explain the delay in the implementation of the plans, he said areas which face this threat have been fenced of with rubble stones.
