Coimbatore-based non-governmental organisation Osai has alleged violations of the Hill Area Conservation Authority (HACA) rules and a key recommendation by Asian elephant expert Ajay Desai in the Anaikatti region which is witnessing developments in the form of resorts, large farmhouses and restaurants in lands abutting periphery of the critical Anaikatti north – Anaikatti south elephant corridor.
In its petition submitted to the Coimbatore District Collector, the District Forest Officer, the Director of Town and Country Planning and the Deputy Director of Town and Country Planning, Osai wanted a freeze of land use change within the 150-meter zone from the forest boundary along the Anaikatti north - Anaikatti south elephant corridor.
Desai, in a report given to the Madras High Court in February 2019 on the translocation of wild elephant Chinnathambi, had advised that no land should be assigned for residential purposes and commercial purpose within 150 meters of the forest boundary of Coimbatore Forest Division. He had also recommended checking the violations of the HACA rules along the forest boundary.
The NGO wanted authorities to take stringent action against HACA violations and curb the construction developments on the corridor and curtail construction of farmhouses, commercial establishments, and other housing colonies within the 150-meter zone from the forest boundary of the entire Coimbatore Forest Division as suggested by Desai in his report.
It also wanted measures to be taken to acquire the lands earmarked by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to widen the Anaikatti north– Anaikatti south corridor which is linked to the Mannarkkad Forest Division in Kerala.
According to Osai president K. Kalidasan, the flat lands abutting the periphery of the corridor are used by elephants, especially herd with calves and juveniles, that cannot move on the hill slopes with high gradients. These flat lands were earmarked for acquisition in the book Right of Passage’ by the Project Elephant and WTI.
Mr. Kalidasan said that frequent human presence, unusual lighting, music, human noise and food odour created by the commercial establishments within the 150 meters zone from the forest boundary either makes elephants to avoid the nearby forest area or become habituated to human presence.
Elephants habituated to human presence lose the fear of people and move freely through human settlements. They frequently indulge in crop raiding, attack households for cooked food and rice, destroy grocery shops, and also kill people in freak encounters, he said.
The petition demanded action against fenced property abutting the forest boundary on the north of the Kandivali tribal settlement has restructured the hill slope violating HACA rules. The property falls within lands that were proposed to be acquired to widen the Anaikatti north - Anaikatti south elephant corridor.
Other properties mentioned in the complaint are a coffee shop on Coimbatore – Mannarkkad Road, a resort near Mangarai, another resort in Pattisalai village and two properties function as farm houses in land earmarked for acquisition adjoining Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History, all established within the 150-meter zone from the forest boundary.
District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj said the Forest Department has issued notices to all the properties and sent a letter to the Collector, informing the facts on Osai’s complaint.
