Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: Panaji police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unknown persons following a complaint lodged by the Forest Department regarding a missing file on Goa’s proposed tiger reserve.
According to sources, the Deputy Conservator of Forests (North, Wildlife) approached Panaji police after the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) directed the department to take action.
Notably, the Forest Department did not conduct any internal inquiry before filing the complaint.
The issue surfaced during the CEC’s first hearing on September 16, when petitioner Goa Foundation submitted that the tiger reserve proposal, finalized by the State Forest Department in 2018, had gone missing.
Foundation director Claude Alvares told the panel that the proposal file, which excluded all major settlements from the reserve boundary, had disappeared, making it impossible to produce annexures listed in the document.
During the hearing, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests admitted that the file could not be traced. The CEC then directed the Forest Department to file an FIR, following which the complaint was registered with Panaji police.
