Protesting action against resorts on jumbo corridor, shops down shutters

They have announced of a three-day protest claiming that their livelihood would be lost due to the crackdown on resorts. 

Tourist operators including hundreds of jeeps involved in ferrying tourists for sightseeing in Masinagudi also joined the bandh.

Nearly, 27 resorts were sealed on Sunday following an order by the Supreme Court to lock down or seal resorts obstructing the elephant migratory pathway. 

Owners of 12 more resort have been asked to submit their approval documents to allow their functioning and further action will be taken after the verification process. The protesting public faulted the district administration for wrongly identifying non-migrant pathways as elephant corridor. 

Many resorts are facing closure due to the expert committee wrongly identifying a vast stretch as key elephant corridor, they claimed. Protesting against the closure of resorts, as many as 245 shops located in Masinagudi, Mavanalla, Moyar, Bokkapuram and Vazhaithottam remained shut from Monday morning.

People stayed indoors from going to work and refused to send children to school. Most of the schools witnessed only less than 50 per cent of attendance. 

Nearly, hundreds of Taxi drivers, traders and farmers, staged a protest in Masinagudi bus stand demanding to secure the rights of people living in the forest areas. They also claimed that hundreds of villagers, who were employed in resorts and involved in tourist activities, have become jobless.  

Due to the protest, the Masinagudi and its surrounding localities wore a deserted look. Many tourists who visited Masinagudi returned disappointed as shops remained shut. A large number of police personnel have been deployed to prevent any untoward incidents.

A report submitted by Nilgiris district administration to court has also identified that 390 houses, 27 public buildings, nine estates, 77 farmlands to be located on the elephant corridor in Masinagudi. 

However, the Supreme Court has not given any ruling on the residential houses located on the elephant corridor.

Close on the heels of a crackdown on illegal resorts in The Nilgiris, farmers from Coimbatore have sought for a similar action on buildings encroaching migratory pathway of elephants.  

In a petition to district Collector TN Hariharan during the weekly grievance day meet on Monday, the members of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam (non-political) led by its president Su Palanisamy alleged that many buildings have mushroomed obstructing the pathway of elephants. 

“Rampant encroachments including religious centres and commercial buildings have come up in forest areas in Mettupalayam, Marudamalai, Thondamuthur, Madukarai, Boluvampatty, Narasipuram, Aliyar and Pollachi. Due to obstruction of elephant migratory pathway, the jumbos have started to stray into farmlands and residential areas leading to man-animal conflicts,” said Palanisamy. 

The farmers claimed that rampaging wild elephants cause widespread destruction of crops resulting in a severe financial loss. 

“There has also been an increase in incidents of life loss due to straying elephants in residential areas in the district,” he said. 

On hearing their plea, Hariharan said that the issue would be discussed with all other concerned departments and action initiated against illegal structures. 

Commenting on the issue of illegal encroachments in forest areas, NI Jalaluddin, president of Nature Conservation Society (NCS), an environmental NGO, said that the forest department has been managing well everyday conflicts in Coimbatore, but long-term mitigation strategies should be evolved to find a permanent solution. 

“There is a long way to go to secure the rights of elephants by removing obstructions on elephant pathway. There are many educational institutions, religious centres and resorts located near the reserve forest areas causing disturbance to wild animals. Yet compared to previous years, incidents of human deaths due to conflicts with elephants has come down drastically this year due to adequate awareness given to tribal villages through project ‘Kaliru’,” he said. 

In Nilgiris, 27 resorts located blocking the migratory pathway of elephants was sealed following a direction from the Supreme Court.