The Supreme Court recently cracked the whip on resort owners who have illegally constructed hotels and restaurants in the picturesque
Moyar elephant corridor in
Nilgiris. The court asked the state government to close down the resorts within 48 hours and the others to produce documents to prove that they had valid license. The move has come as a huge relief for environmentalists in the city on
World Elephant Day.
“The Court has identified 821 properties in the elephant corridor, which comes under two panchayats- Sholur and Masinagudi. By curbing such constructions, the human-animal conflict in the region can come down to a great extent,” says city-based environmentalist K Mohan Raj.
K Kalidas of Osai, a Coimbatore-based NGO, states that the Nilgiris biosphere has the single largest population of Asiatic elephants. “The biosphere is continuous forest in the Western Ghats in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. While Bandipur, Nagarhole and Mudumalai are in the Deccan plateau, the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, Coimbatore and Erode region are in the plains. Every year hundreds of
elephants move from the plateaus to plains in search of food. The path that connects two major habitats is called the elephant corridor. The Moyar
elephant corridor was originally inhabited by locals who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. But, soon people from other parts of the country moved in and began constructing farmhouses which were later converted to resorts. Commercial tourism picked up and more resorts sprang up in the area.”
The Nilgiris biosphere spans around 5,000 sq km and the Moyar elephant corridor where the resorts are located is a deep valley. “There are many villages in the region. According to a study done in 2008, there were only 40 resorts in Nilgiris. But, today, not only has the footfall increased but the number of resorts have grown exponentially. The local people didn’t want massive development in the area but unfortunately, it became a hub of resorts and real estate business. Majority of the resort owners in the region are from other parts of the country,” says N Mohanraj, adviser at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
He adds that construction of any kind at an elephant corridor will have a huge impact on the environment and wildlife. “Elephants need lot of space to move around. They need huge areas of forest to feed, for shade and for water. If there are buildings all around, their movement can get restricted to a great extent.”
Environmentalists blame tourism as one of the primary reasons for the construction of illegal resorts in the protected biosphere. “Resorts block the path of pachyderms and other wildlife. At night, tourists play loud music, have campfire and go on illegal safaris. People have been attacked by animals during such outings. All these incidents have happened in the Nilgiris over a period of time. Resorts are a huge disturbance to the habitat of elephants that travel long distances in a day,” says K Mohanraj.
There is no forest without elephants. “Elephants play a crucial role in the eco-system. Elephants lay the roads in a forest and identify sources of water. In case of mild forest fire, the tracks laid by elephants can mitigate the damage. When elephants eat, they create gaps in vegetation and allow new plants to grow,” says Mohammad Saleem of Environment Conservation Group. Agreeing with his N Mohanraj, “Since they are big animals, they break down obstacles in the path. When an elephant dies, the carnivores like tigers and hyenas, feed on the carrion.”
Kalidas says that it’s time we got a law that restricts the development of buildings in sensitive elephant corridors. “Those who operate tourism business in the area and tourists visiting the spots should be responsible and not cause any disturbance to the wildlife. We also need a strict law.”
