A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking closure of all 'illegal' brick-kilns in Thadagam valley, a reserve forest area near Coimbatore, claiming that it blocked the routine migratory path of elephants in the region.

When the PIL petition by S

Muralidharan of INCARE, an organisation for animal welfare activities, came up for hearing Thursday, a division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad tagged it with another petition relating to wild elephant 'Chinnathambi,' to be heard on February 11.

The other petition has sought a direction to prevent authorities from capturing, taming, tranquilising or harming 'Chinnathambi,' which was recently translocated from the outskirts of Coimbatore to Varagaliar by forest personnel.

In the present PIL, the petitioner submitted that Thadagam Valley in Coimbatore forest division was home to wild life species including Royal Bengal Tigers and the Asian elephants and has in the past two decades witnessed mushrooming of brick kilns.

Noting that the valley was an elephant habitat, the petitioner said the brick kilns have fractured the land leading to the drying up of Sanganur canal and effectively blocking the routine migratory path of pachyderms.

The jumbos are being forced out of their traditional foraging range or migratory route in the valley, he claimed and sought a direction to close down the brick kilns.

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