Elephant Corridor: 50 Illegal resorts in elephant habitat

Dear All,
Sharing a news item regarding mushrooming of resorts adjoining the reserve forests in the nilgiris.
Sabyasachi

50 illegal resorts in elephant habitat
Shantha Thiagarajan, TNN 19 November 2009, 04:21am IST
UDHAGAMANDALAM: At least 50 illegal holiday resorts are located close to reserve forests that serve as elephant habitats in the Nilgiris, activists said on the eve of a hearing in a case relating to violations of wildlife protection laws.

Four forest tracts in the Nilgiris have been identified as elephant corridors, where all construction and installation of electric fences are prohibited. However, official studies show that large swathes of land in these corridors are under private ownership. Portions of these lands have been leased out for commercial activity without proper licences and approval from the district administration.

On Thursday, when a case relating to violations of wildlife protection laws and man-animal conflicts in the region comes up for hearing in the Madras High Court, the forest department will present a detailed map showing land use along the 120 sqkm elephant corridor. Acting on the HC's directions, the forest department had undertaken a detailed study and mapping of elephant habitats.

Link to Source article:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/h...ow/5245539.cms

Sab.

There are umpteen number of resorts between bandipur and mudumalai and most of them are from the unorganised sector.

There are even land (fenced) that belongs to some wildlife biologist/scientists right in the heart of that area, sorrounded by forest on all sides.

Please see my earlier post on Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka. When a resort can be permitted to come up right inside the sanctuary (critical elephant habitat) then why should we be surprised with what is going on outside??

We must pray to our beloved elephant god to put an end to this elephantine menace.

Officials should act impartially and implement the landmark high-court judgement. The illegal occupants must be removed from the elephant corridors. This corrective action in Bokkapuram - Masinagudi corridor will help in removing encroachments in other elephant corridors in Tamil Nadu.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...m=mailtofriend


Update on this matter. Pls see the link above.

Dear All,
Sharing a news item that was published in Express Buzz.

Elephant Corridor: Collector and DFO Pulled up by Court
Express News Service
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Nilgiris District Forest Officer S Ramasubramanian and Collector Archana Patnaik to appear in court for their alleged disobedience of the orders passed by it earlier.
A division bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal gave the direction on Monday, while taking on file a contempt application from S Jayachandran of Finger Post in Udhagamandalam, seeking to punish the duo for their wilful disobedience of the court orders. The duo were to appear before the judges on June 4.

According to advocate M Santhanaraman, counsel for petitioner, who is also honorary secretary of Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association, writ petitions were filed challenging the validity of a GO dated August 31, 2010. By an order dated April 17 last year, a division bench of the HC had upheld its validity relating to acquisition of land for an elephant corridor.

The court had directed the occupants to hand over the land to the government in three months. It had also ordered the removal of unauthorised electric fences in the corridor. While so, the duo had ratified the sale deeds executed by some private individuals in violation of the TNPPF Act, that too in the area earmarked for the corridor in the August 31 GO, which had already been upheld by the HC and had not been stayed in its entirety by the Supreme Court. Further, despite the directions given by the HC to remove the electric fences, the duo had not taken any step to implement the same.

Source article can be found here: http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chenna...up/382941.html