{ WESTERN GHATS } DIFFERING CLAIMS Goa’s conundrum on tiger presence in its wild

Are the forests of Goa, part of the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats, home to tigers or not?

- Gerard de Souza

That's a question being debated as the state contests a recommendation from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) upheld by the Bombay high court to have 750 square kilometres of notified protected area of the Western Ghats in Goa as a tiger reserve.

In an appeal filed in September 2023 before the Supreme Court challenging the Goa bench of the Bombay high court's July 2023 order to declare a tiger reserve, the state government has claimed that there were no resident tigers in the region and the protected area was, at most, a corridor for tigers to transit between Maharashtra and Karnataka. The claims, however, reflect a sharp departure from the state government's stance before the Maha-dayi Water Disputes Tribunal.