Forest department may drop plan for eco-tourism project at Arunamala

Officials submit report to Collector

The Forest Department has offered to withdraw the plan to set up an eco-tourism project at Arunamala under the Meppady forest range of the South Wayanad forest division owing to the stiff opposition by tribespeople.

The department had proposed to launch a mega tourism project, including trekking to Arunamala and setting up tents for tourists, near the tribal settlement on the eastern slope of the camel hump mountain complex of the Western Ghats where 85 families of Kattunayakkan community, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, live. Many incidences of landslips were also reported on the ecologically fragile area during the monsoon two years ago.