Udhagamandalam: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Nilgiris collector to come out with a plan of action to deal with new resorts that have come up within the Moyar valley elephant corridor after the Madras High Court passed an order in 2009 seeking a status report of steps taken to remove encroachments.
After the hearing, the bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said the Nilgiris collector has to draw up a plan of action in connection with the resorts, if any, that have come up after the high court directed the collector to file a status report showing the steps taken to remove all the encroachments from revenue land which have been identified for development of the elephant corridor. The bench adjourned the case to August 8, 2018. However, no order was passed in this regard.
The court observed that 27 elephant corridors are located in 22 states across the country, of which only six states have submitted reports to the Union government.
The Moyar valley elephant corridor case is pending in the Supreme Court for the past six years and the Tamil Nadu government has submitted counter affidavits for 32 special leave petitions.
Based on four orders by the high court between 2008 and 2010, the state government issued an order via GO no. 125 dated August 31, 2010 confirming the elephant corridor map published on January 6, 2010. The map was prepared by an expert committee that included forest officials. However, patta land owners approached the Supreme Court with about 32 special leave petitions against the high court orders.
As per the Nilgiris gazette notification dated July 6, 2011 in compliance with the high court order dated December 3, 2009, the map of the final elephant corridor extended to 24,503.86 hectares, comprising Sholur, Masinagudi, Hulathi and Kadanadu panchayats, in Segur plateau of the Nilgiris.
While forest land accounts for the major portion of 21,625 hectares, the extent of government and patta land stands at 1,185 and 1,692 hectares respectively. A few tribal hamlets also fall within the purview of the corridor. The 1,692 hectares of patta land comprise 397 survey numbers, including tea estates.
Welcoming the Supreme Court direction, Coimbatore-based activist K Mohan Raj said the state government should not delay demolition of more than 400 resorts that have come up in the corridor area illegally. This place in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve holds the single largest population of Asian elephants and the tigers in the world. “By saving elephant and other wildlife, we can save our forests and secure our water till the Cauvery basin,” he said.
