GOA's forest department recently organised a workshop to discuss its research priorities, and debated in detail the location and preservation of natural reserves. "Problems of the ill-effects of mining, grazing, urbanisation and pollution required to be studied in detail," said a statement issued at the workshop.

Till today, Goa does not have a forestry research institute. Besides, lack of infrastructure has not allowed the Research & Utilisation Division dealing with forestry problems since 1970 to achieve desired results.

Various research issues that have been discussed in the past include habitat evaluation of water bodies and status report of the migrating inhabitants, species composition and habitat suit-ability of marine species such as dolphins, turtles and sea otters, and research on breeding potential of the Indian bison under semi-controlled conditions.

Statistics generated by the forest department show that over 200 square kilometres of forest area in this small state is currently in private hands.