In what could well turn out nasty outcomes in Man – Animal Conflict, residents of Mettupalayam continue to go for jogging on the Mettupalayam to Kotagiri Highway on a daily basis close to the Western Ghats here.
The issue which was long pending and was in the court for a brief time frame came to light once again last year, when the Mettupalayam Sessions Court lifted the ban for walking or jogging on the Road from the Forest Department Check Post upto five kilo meters.
The ban was earlier posed by the District Forest Office considering the frequent movement of larger mammals including Elephants, Tigers and Gaurs on the Road.
According to officials from the Forest Department, the area comes under one of the major elephant corridors that connects forest patches from the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats and falls on the Kallar to Gandhapallam Elephant Corridor. The forest patches on both the sides of the Road is used by a wide variety of animals including the Striped Hyena, Leopard, Spotted Deer and Sambar.
In order to support the life in the area, the Forest Department had earlier set up a water hole near the Tamil Nadu Forest College, which again comes very close to the Reserve Forest site. The campus has also created a check list of wild animals that roams inside, all to prove that the area is a wildlife hotspot.
Hence, in order to avert conflict between man and animals the Forest Department had posed the ban, but it was lifted by the court after a case was filed by the residents who usually used the road. The officials of Forest Department had then claimed that they would go for an appeal as the Road in conflict was a high intensity wildlife zone.
However, with change of Range Officers and District Forest Officers over the course of one year, no concrete steps were taken to lift the ban legally. Department officials were also not available to comment on the issue with it being legal.
Notably, despite frequent encounters, no wildlife or human casualties have been reported on the Road till date. Yet, with deaths on both sides rising because of Man – Animal conflict, it is high time that people take sensible approaches in handling wildlife.
The issue which was long pending and was in the court for a brief time frame came to light once again last year, when the Mettupalayam Sessions Court lifted the ban for walking or jogging on the Road from the Forest Department Check Post upto five kilo meters.
The ban was earlier posed by the District Forest Office considering the frequent movement of larger mammals including Elephants, Tigers and Gaurs on the Road.
According to officials from the Forest Department, the area comes under one of the major elephant corridors that connects forest patches from the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats and falls on the Kallar to Gandhapallam Elephant Corridor. The forest patches on both the sides of the Road is used by a wide variety of animals including the Striped Hyena, Leopard, Spotted Deer and Sambar.
In order to support the life in the area, the Forest Department had earlier set up a water hole near the Tamil Nadu Forest College, which again comes very close to the Reserve Forest site. The campus has also created a check list of wild animals that roams inside, all to prove that the area is a wildlife hotspot.
Hence, in order to avert conflict between man and animals the Forest Department had posed the ban, but it was lifted by the court after a case was filed by the residents who usually used the road. The officials of Forest Department had then claimed that they would go for an appeal as the Road in conflict was a high intensity wildlife zone.
However, with change of Range Officers and District Forest Officers over the course of one year, no concrete steps were taken to lift the ban legally. Department officials were also not available to comment on the issue with it being legal.
Notably, despite frequent encounters, no wildlife or human casualties have been reported on the Road till date. Yet, with deaths on both sides rising because of Man – Animal conflict, it is high time that people take sensible approaches in handling wildlife.