HC Upholds Order to Clear Illegal Resorts in Nilgiris

State Told to Declare Revenue Land Along Corridor as a Reserve Forest

- R SIVAKUMAR @Chennai

A special bench of the Madras High Court upheld the ruling of a Supreme Court-appointed committee declaring the land purchased by private entities on the elephant corridor of Sigur plateau in the Nilgiris as illegal. The committee's order to dismantle the illegal resorts and constructions raised in violation of planning permission on the corridor has also been upheld by a bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy.

The HC bench, which has been dealing with cases related to forest issues, also ordered the state to declare the revenue land located along the corridor as a reserve forest. The bench passed the orders on a batch of petitions filed by the private resort owners challenging the orders of a three-member inquiry committee appointed in 2020 headed by retired judge K Venkatraman on the title rights of the land owned by the resorts.