Hundreds of persons, including members of various farmers, traders and hoteliers associations in The Nilgiris and neighbouring places like Gundlepet, took out a procession and staged a demonstration opposite the Collectorate here recently.
Organised by the Forum to Protect Night Traffic on National Highways the rally and demonstration were in protest against the ban imposed on night traffic on roads passing through wildlife reserves. It had come into effect about six years ago to protect wild animals which criss-cross the roads between dusk and dawn.
Pointing out that the Gudalur-Mysore National Highway 67 and the Mysore-Kozhikode National Highway 212 have since 2009 been closed to traffic between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. a Forum spokesman told The Hindu that it had subjected the farming community to considerable hardship. Terming the ban as a violation of basic rights, they said that it made it difficult to handle medical emergencies. Among those to suffer most because of this were tribal people.
A memorandum was submitted to the Nilgiris Collector P.Sankar.
