HC upholds night traffic ban on Dhimbam ghat road, spares locals residents alone

Humans have disproportionately conquered the space on earth, there is very little space for the wildlife to exist: Judges

“Humans have disproportionately conquered the space on earth. There is very little space for the wildlife to exist,” the Madras High Court observed on Wednesday and upheld the night traffic ban (except for vehicles belonging to the tribals, forest dwellers, local villagers and agriculturalists) imposed on Dhimbam ghat road which was part of a national highway that passes through Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve and connects Tamil Nadu with Karnataka.

Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy held that the Collector, heading the District Road Safety Committee, was fully empowered to impose restrictions such as night traffic ban, speed limit, maximum permissible weight and height of commercial vehicles and so on even with respect to national highways and that the role of National Highways Authority of India was limited to collection of toll.

Though 10 animals, including three leopards and three spotted deer, had reportedly died in the stretch in 2021 alone, the judges said, since the Supreme Court had extended the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution to animals too, the night traffic ban was primarily essential to avoid disturbance to animals, a majority of which were nocturnal, and that road kill was only a secondary reason.

Authoring the verdict, Justice Chakravarthy also said that the commercial vehicle operators and those who use the stretch as a thoroughfare, basically because of the convenience it offers in plying between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and not because of non-availability of alternative routes, could not claim that their fundamental right to movement or their right to trade was being infringed due to the imposition of night traffic ban.

The judges pointed out that the ghat road in question was laid in 1920 for the purpose of patrolling the forest and for the use of the tribals. Though it eventually got declared as a national highway and used by heavy commercial vehicles, which often meet with accidents at the 27 steep hairpin bends, it did not have any sophisticated underpasses for the animals to cross the national highway and there were no fences too on the road margins.

Pointing out that the Madras High Court campus proudly exhibits a life-size stone statue of Manu Needhi Chozhan, an yesteryear ruler known for having upheld justice despite his son having caused the death of a calf in a roadkill, the first Division Bench said, it was bound to show compassion towards all living creatures and issued a series of directions with respect to night traffic on the stretch.

The court ordered that no vehicle with 12 wheels or above and no truck/trailer with a total weight of 16.20 tonnes and above should be permitted to enter the ghat road for any purpose whatsoever irrespective of the timings. Trucks and trailers which have up to 10 wheels and weigh less than 16.20 tonnes alone could be permitted to use the ghat road as thoroughfare between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.