Four offenders fined Re 1 for flying drone in tiger reserve

Acting on a tip-off that a group of youngsters had intruded into the protected jungles at Masinagudi in MTR, the forest department rushed to the spot and nabbed them. As many as six persons were found operating a drone to capture a video of the lush forests in Masinagudi in MTR on Saturday.

The forest department immediately brought them to the office and decided to impose a hefty fine. However, the violators, who were said to be influential persons, managed to go scot free with a bare minimum fine amount.

Two of the main offenders, M Musamil Ahmed (25) from Coimbatore and S Sasikumar (25) from Chennai, were levied a fine of Rs 2,000 each. However, four others, P Santhosh, Nandhakumar, Sanjay and Sushrath, were fined Re 1 for entering the forest cover in a car.

The environmental activists expressed shock over such a low fine amount as even tourists, who unknowingly enter the forest boundary, were earlier fined at least Rs 10,000 and it could go up to Rs 1 lakh for tour operators.

“It is illegal to operate drones and document a tiger reserve. There are instances when the forest department had fined even Rs 25,000 on individuals found bathing in rivers in the protected forest. It is something fishy as the offenders were let off with such a poor fine,” said Vijay Krishnaraj, former secretary of Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association.

Further, Vijay urged the forest department to hold a proper enquiry and penalise the offenders with a stringent punishment, so it could be a lesson for others. However, the MTR officials defended the youngsters saying that there wasn’t any particular motive behind their actions.

Dismissing reports that they trespassed into the forest cover, the top forest department official said, they operated the drone only from Ooty- Mudumalai Main Road. “As they apologised for their act we let them off after fining two persons of Rs 2,000 and Re 1 on others,” he said.