Elephant corridors: Supreme Court seeks report on illegal buildings in Nilgiris district

“What is to be done? No state is listening to Government of India. It is hopeless. There has to be a solution of this. Is the Government of India helpless,” the bench asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, who appeared for the centre.

“It is a crisis. If state governments will say we will do whatever we want and let the Government of India say anything, there will be a complete breakup of the system. It is an amazing situation,” the bench, which was hearing a batch of pleas which have raised the issue of having elephant corridors across India, said.

At the outset, Nadkarni referred to the April 23 order of the apex court and said that out of the 22 states, three states - Kerala, Meghalaya and West Bengal - had responded earlier while five others have also given their responses to the centre.

He said there were incidents of elephant deaths in rail or road accidents or by electrocution.

During the hearing, one of the counsel alleged that 400 hotels and resorts have come up on the elephant corridor areas in Tamil Nadu.

The bench made it clear that no construction activity would be carried out in these areas in Tamil Nadu and asked the Collector of the Nilgiris, where hotels and resorts have allegedly come up, to file a report in this regard.

It asked the collector to also apprise the court as to how these establishments can be identified, when they were built and how.

The counsel also told the court that around 18,000 elephants come to Tamil Nadu during the monsoon season and the court should direct that the power connection to these resorts and hotels should be snapped.

“We want a plan of action first,” the bench said, “the plan of action should be with respect to the elephant corridors.”

The owners of some of these hotels and resorts have also filed appeals in the apex court against a Madras High Court order against them in this regard.

The bench said these issues would be heard in August. A lawyer said that mining activities were going on in elephant corridor areas in Assam. Another lawyer said that mining activities were going on in elephant corridor areas in Assam.