T.N. Govt. faces stiff challenges to balance needs of human communities and elephant habitats in Gudalur

Legal experts and conservationists advocate for the notification of crucial elephant corridors in Gudalur to ensure Asian elephant conservation.

Despite opposition from residents and political parties to the Tamil Nadu government identifying two corridors that run through Gudalur in the Nilgiris, legal experts and conservationists feel that notifying the two corridors will be imperative in ensuring the conservation of the Asian elephant in the region.

The experts feel that notifying the corridor will help in reducing further encroachments to elephant habitats in the region, but also state that the government needs to ensure that pattas are distributed to people who have been living in the region for many decades to ensure peaceful co-existence between humans and animals.

The draft elephant corridor report details the presence of anywhere between 60 and 80 elephants in the Gudalur forest division, where two crucial corridors - the Bospara to Nilambur corridor and the O’Valley corridor have been identified. The two corridors foster the movement of elephants in Mudumalai, Gudalur and Nilambur forest divisions.

However, since the release of the report, political parties have voiced their opposition to the identification of the corridors, stating that they fear that local residents would be evicted by the Forest Department and the government.

If notified, the O’Valley corridor in particular, comprising the villages of Deivamalai, Lauriston, Moolakadu, Seaforth and Amblimalai, which are all under the management of leaseholders from Manjushree, Mahavir, Shanthi and Sathyakumari tea plantation companies, will need to be included as part of the corridor. Similarly, the villages of Kariyashola, Devarshola block – comprising Padanthorai, Kadasankolly, Murampilavu, Somanvayal, Puliyampara, Irumbupalam, Devala, among others will be included in the Bospara to Nilambur corridor.

The O’Valley corridor, in particular, will pass through the lands of people with no pattas due to occupying lands classified under “Section 17” of The Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act of 1969. Over the last century, the government’s failure to settle legitimate claims for pattas, combined with new encroachers from Kerala settling in the region over the last few decades has meant that the O’Valley region remains extremely volatile, with regular confrontations between residents and the Forest Department, who have been fighting a losing battle trying to stop encroachments in the region.

“There is no question that the two corridors need to be secured,” said B. Ramakrishnan, Head of the Department of Wildlife Biology at the Government Arts College and member, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Asian elephant specialist group.