Will use electric motor boats at Pykara lake in future, TTDC assures Madras High Court

TTDC pledges to replace petrol boats with electric motor boats at Pykara Lake, ensuring environmental protection and sustainable tourism.

The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) on Friday (February 13, 2026) informed the Madras High Court it shall endeavour to replace the petrol outboard motor boats (OMBs) with electric OMBs at Pykara lake near Udhagamandalam (Ooty) in the Nilgiris district.

In a status report submitted before a special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, constituted to hear forest and environment related cases, the TTDC Managing Director said, the corporation will purchase only electric OMBs in future.

The submission was made after the court, assisted by amici curiae T. Mohan, Chevanan Mohan, Rahul Balaji and M. Santhanaraman, raised concerns over the operation of high speed boats that use fossil fuels and generate a lot of noise thereby causing harm to the pristine environment.

Responding to the concerns raised by the court, the TTDC MD said, the corporation at present uses only petrol OBMs and not diesel OBMs. “The petrol OBMs generate minimal engine noise and do not cause any sound pollution that would disturb wildlife or other species in the surrounding environment,” the MD asserted.

The court was told the petrol OBMs at the Pykara Boat House were maintained well and there had been no oil leakage into the water body at any stage of the operation. Steps had been taken to ensure the water does not get polluted with harmful contaminants which could impact aquatic life, the MD said.

Further, clarifying the boating activities were not carried out within any core forest area, the TTDC said, the Boat House was located on a land belonging to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and it had been taken on lease by the corporation for a period of 31 years.