The digging of an elephant-proof trench around a tribal school and staff quarters in Upper Karugudi, a core area in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), has shocked naturalists and environmentalists.
According to activists working in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, non-forestry activity should not be taken up in protected areas such as the MTR without permission from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Moreover, any such activity that could disturb or harm wildlife should be included in the MTR’s approved management plan and should not be undertaken without permission from the Supreme Court of India.
S. Jayachandran, joint secretary of the Tamil Nadu Green Movement, said the Supreme Court, in a recent judgment, had directed that tourism activity in tiger reserves should be minimised and the existing activities be brought to the buffer zones or the periphery of the protected area.
Contrary to this, the managers of the MTR had carried out non-forestry activity on a large scale. Large dams across all perennial swamps in the sanctuary were constructed over the past few decades, changing the dynamics and the eco-system.
“Besides, there have been no reports of any untoward incident resulting in loss to humans in this part of the core habitat. So there is no need to dig a trench,” Mr. Jayachandran says. “Digging a trench in a core area will not only affect the endangered species living in that area but also the vegetation, water flow and tranquillity,” he adds.
Activists are shocked by not just the trenches but also the road laying work for which the authorities were using earth-movers to scrape the existing roads inside the tiger reserve to lay new roads.
When contacted, Field Director of MTR P. Raghuram Singh said the trench laying work was completed nearly a month ago. This was done as the children in the school and the staff quarters felt threatened by the movement of elephants in and around that area.
“The total length of the trenches dug recently was about 800 metres. The two-metre deep trenches were three metres wide at the top and one metre at the bottom,” says D. Chandran, Deputy Director of MTR. Children from villages inside the MTR and from Masinagudy and Mavanhalla were studying in the tribal school and around 60 families were occupying the staff quarters, he said, reasoning the need for the trench. A senior wildlife official said no one could erect barriers that affected the migration of animals inside a national park, sanctuary or a tiger reserve. Field directors should obtain prior permission from the Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu before taking up such works, he noted. MTR managers said the trenches were being dug only where they were absolutely necessary.
( Additional reporting by D. Radhakrishnan from Udhagamandalam )
