Necessary action being taken to restore elephant corridors, HC told

Evicting encroachers leads to law and order issues, says Principal Chief Conservator of Forests

The Forest Department has apprised the Madras High Court of the laborious process and difficulties in identifying, notifying and restoring elephant corridors in the Nilgiris district. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Chief Wildlife Warden also informed the court about corridors that had been identified but were yet to be notified, and how any move to evict encroachers leads to displacement of many people and triggers serious law and order issues. Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu were told that three forest divisions (Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, the Nilgiris and Gudalur) in Nilgiris district had elephant corridors. Of them, MTR division had one notified corridor — Sigur Plateau; and two identified but yet to be notified corridors — MTR-Mukurthi National Park-Silent Valley National Park and MTR-Moyar Valley-Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve. A G.O. was issued on August 31, 2010 notifying the Sigur Plateau corridor spread over 3,413.73 hectares and it was upheld by the High Court. However, since a big chunk of the notified corridor consisted of private lands on which resorts and guest houses had been built, the matter was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court which appointed an inquiry committee. The three-member committee, led by retired High Court judge K. Venkataraman, received 226 claims/objections to the notification. While those objections were being scrutinised, the tenure of the committee ended on July 31. The committee has now requested the government to extend its tenure up to April 2022 to complete the inquiry and based on its recommendations, appropriate action would be taken, the PCCF said.