Nilgiri Elephant coridor

Supreme Court (SC) upholds the Madras High Court’s 2011 order on the Nilgiris elephant corridor

• Supreme Court (SC) upholds the Madras High Court’s 2011 order on the Nilgiris elephant corridor
• SC affirmed the right of passage of the animals and the closure of resorts in the area.
• In 2011, the Madras HC had upheld the validity of the Tamil Nadu government’s notification (of 2010) declaring an ‘Elephant Corridor’ in the Sigur Plateau of Nilgiris District.
• According to SC, it’s the State’s duty to protect a “keystone species” like elephants, which are immensely important to the environment.
• Elephant corridors allow elephants to continue their nomadic mode of survival, despite shrinking forest cover, by facilitating travel between distinct forest habitats. 
• These corridors play a crucial role in sustaining wildlife by reducing the impact of habitat isolation.
• The SC opined that the area is a fragile ecosystem, where the will of men must give way to elephants.
• The court has also allowed the formation of a committee led by a retired HC judge and two other persons to hear the individual objections of resort owners and private landowners within the corridor space.
• Nilgiris Elephant Corridor
  • It is situated in the ecologically fragile Sigur plateau. 
  • It connects the Western and the Eastern Ghats.
  • It is situated near the Mudumalai National Park in the Nilgiris district.
  • It also has the Nilgiri hills on its southwestern side and the Moyar river valley on its northeastern side.
  • There are about 100 elephant corridors in India of which almost 70% are used regularly.
  • 75% of the corridors are in the southern, central and north-eastern forests.
  • There are an estimated 6,500 elephants in just the Brahmagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats ranges.