Why in news?
Supreme Court recently directed the TN government to seal resorts and hotels in the Nilgiris elephant corridor.
What is the Court's order?
- The Tamil Nadu government has to seal or close down within 48 hours, 11 resorts and hotels.
- These were constructed on the elephant corridor of Nilgiris in violation of law.
- Owners of other resorts and hotels in the area were asked to place their documents of approval before the Collector within 24 hours.
- The Collector will verify the documents and check if a resort or hotel has been constructed with proper prior approval.
- If not, then the same should also be closed down within 48 hours.
What is the status of elephant corridors?
- As estimated, there are 101 elephant corridors, of which almost 70% are used regularly.
- Nearly three-quarters of the corridors are evenly divided among southern, central and northeastern forests.
- The rest are found in northwest Bengal and the northwestern region.
- Some of these passages are precariously narrow, at only a hundred metres wide.
- Nilgiris - There are an estimated 6,500 elephants in just the Brahmagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats ranges.
- Most of the resorts in the Nilgiris have come up right under the gaze of the Forest Department.
- The majority continue to function without the requisite permissions.
- This must be thoroughly investigated to check whether there was any wrongdoing.
- The grey area of mushrooming home-stay structures, which are just hotels on forest fringes, also deserves scrutiny.
What is the need?
- Forests that have turned into farms and unchecked tourism are blocking animals' paths.
- Animals are thus forced to seek alternative routes resulting in increased elephant-human conflict.
- Weak regulation of ecotourism is severely impacting important habitats.
- It particularly affects animals that have large home ranges, like elephants.
- The movement of elephants is essential to ensure that their populations are genetically viable.
- It also helps to regenerate forests on which other species, including tigers, depend.
- Elephant corridors are also crucial to reduce animal fatalities due to accidents and other reasons.
- So fragmentation of forests makes it all the more important to preserve migratory corridors.
- Ending human interference in the pathways of elephants is more a conservation imperative.
- The Supreme Court’s order is thus a necessary step to restore the ecology of these spaces.
What is the way forward?
- Nearly 40% of elephant reserves are vulnerable, as they are not within protected parks and sanctuaries.
- Also, the migration corridors have no specific legal protection.
- Illegal structures in these pathways should be removed without delay.
- Efforts should be to expand elephant corridors, using the successful models within the country.
- This includes acquisition of lands using private funds and their transfer to the government.
Source: The Hindu
