Elephant Has Right To The Forest, SC Says Man Should Make Way For The 'Gentleman' Elephant

The Supreme Court has indicated that it will uphold a Tamil Nadu government order that notified the Nilgiris Elephant Corridor in 2010.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna also ordered the setting up of a committee headed by a retired judge and comprising experts to consider the issue of removal of structures as well as other commercial establishments, including resorts, around elephant corridors in Nilgiris.

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The committee will also look into aspects like the compensation to the owners of such commercial establishments.

"We will uphold the declaration of the elephant corridor and appoint a committee to work out the modalities. We will ask you (resort owners) to be compensated for the structures (that are found authorized)," the court said.

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The case was filed by several resort owners including actor Mithun Chakraborty against the government order, notifying the Nilgiris Elephant Corridor and the subsequent closure of 27 commercial establishments including hotels and resorts in the eco-sensitive elephant corridor.

The judges however made some serious observations, that could have far-reaching consequences when it comes to the right of wild animals to the forest.

"We are dealing with a very fragile ecosystem. These elephants can become extinct in no time if illegal activities are not curbed in the elephant corridor. We do not want anybody to create trouble for elephants," the SC said.

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"We want to protect the routes and areas used by elephants and if you (hotel owners) are found in their way then you will have to be relocated," the bench said.

The district collector of Nilgiris had said in the report that resorts with restaurants were operating in the area even though they did not have approval for the same. The apex court was told earlier that around 18,000 elephants came to Tamil Nadu during the monsoon season and it should direct that the power connection to these resorts and hotels be snapped.

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After the counsel, some resort owners argued that elephant and man do co-exist, Chief Justice Bobde replied saying, ¡°It is because the elephant is a gentleman¡­ Why do you have to go inside the forest?¡±.

The 22.64 km long and 1.5 km wide Nilgiris corridor is essential for 900 elephants to traverse between the Eastern and Western Ghats.

This is the second time the Supreme Court have made such observations. In January 2019, SC had ruled that elephants have the first right on the forest. A two-member bench of the Supreme Court while ordering the demolition of a boundary wall in the middle of an elephant corridor in Deopahar Reserve Forest in Assam's Golaghat made it clear that the right of wild animals on the forests cannot be overlooked.

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The border wall, which had barbed wire on top of it was built in an area spanning 2.2-kilometre was built by the state-run Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) in 2011, for its housing estate which included a golf course in the middle of an elephant corridor.

In a related development, the Jharkhand government has chosen to not build the Dhalbhumgarh airport to save forests and animals. The Dhalbhumgarh airport sought nearly 100 hectares of land from forests in Jharkhand that serve as a corridor for elephants migrating between Jharkhand and the neighbouring state of West Bengal.