Demolition notices issued to owners of illegal resorts at Segur in the Nilgiris

35 illegally built resorts in Segur Elephant Corridor face demolition orders due to encroachment on crucial elephant migration pathway.

Notices for demolition have been issued to 35 illegally built resorts in the notified Segur Elephant Corridor in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), officials from the Nilgiris district administration have confirmed.

According to sources, the resort owners have been given 15 days time to demolish or dismantle the structures that have been deemed to have been constructed illegally, failing which, the local panchayat would be tasked with doing so.

Sources in the district administration added that three other resorts, apart from the 35 that were ordered to be demolished, did not appear before the Supreme Court appointed Segur Elephant Corridor Inquiry Committee. The owners of the resorts are to appear before the committee before a specified time-frame, failing which the committee would pass suo moto orders about the fate of the resorts.

Apart from the 35 illegally built resorts, the committee also found that around 10 other buildings were operating commercially, and orders have also been passed to demolish them, sources added.

The Segur Elephant Corridor, is a crucial pathway for the migration of the Asian elephant, which ensures the genetic dispersal of elephant population between the Western and Eastern Ghats, ecologists state. Due to the encroachments made to the habitats by illegally constructed resorts in the region, the Supreme Court had ordered that they be sealed and appointed an expert committee headed by a retired judge to look into the grievances raised by the resort owners against the Nilgiris district administration.

In 2023, the committee passed its orders directing the government to demolish the illegally built resorts within the tiger reserve.