Tree felling posing threat to one of Goa’s highest peaks

KERI: One of the highest peaks of the Western Ghats in Goa at 726m, Vagheri’s private forests, which come under the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, are under threat due to increased illegal tree felling activities allegedly being undertaken by some of the land owners at the behest of a Delhi-based firm that plans to set up an eco-tourism project here.
The Vageri hill covers Keri, Zarme, and Pali areas of Sattari and has for ages been known as the abode of the tiger. In 1999, the Sawant committee appointed by the Goa government had identified 200ha area in Keri as private forests. Subsequently, the Karapurkar committee and V T Thomas committee had also identified private forests on the Vagheri hill.
Despite this, owners of private forests here have allegedly made attempts to sell their land to a Delhi-based firm. Taking advantage of the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, land owners sought permission to clear bushes and instead undertook tree felling illegally.
“Last year we booked an offence against unidentified persons for illegal felling of trees. We also told the owners not to repeat the illegal felling,” Keri range forest officer Vivek Gaonkar told TOI.
Deputy conservator of forests Santosh Phadte said that he has already instructed forest officials not to allow any forest clearance and to take necessary steps for the protection of the private forests at Vagheri.
“Six kilometres of the pathway going to privately-owned forests passes through the sanctuary and we have instructed our staff to restrain unnecessary entry to Vagheri hill,” RFO of the sanctuary, Deepak Tandel said.
If these eco-tourism plans materialise, it will cause irreparable loss to the wildlife, ecology and environment, environmentalists said.
Environmentalists said that damage was first wrought to the hill’s ecology after the state forest department undertook tree felling here with a view to afforest it with exotic tree species. Later, cashew plantations taken up by local communities had posed a threat to its natural cover.
However, the more recent tree felling and clearing of bushes for proposed eco-tourism activities has only served to accelerate the degradation of the hill’s natural habitat, they said.
Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s directives, Goa government had constituted a state-level expert committee on January 24, 1997, under the chairmanship of Sadanand Sawant to identify private forests. The Sawant committee had identified private forests contiguous to government forests having 75% forestry species and 40% canopy cover.
In 1999, government-owned forests were included in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, which also had a one-kilometre eco-sensitive zone.