The Kerala government will petition the Supreme Court on the denial of the ‘Right of Way’ to the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary to which the only access is via Tamil Nadu.
“The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Gopinathan has written to Forest Secretary P K Mohanty to take up with the Advocate-general on the issue of petitioning the Supreme Court for the right of way for the people of Kerala into the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary,” said Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) O P Kaler.
He said that the Tamil Nadu Forest Department had wrongly notified that the three forests tracts - Madhumalai Tiger Reserve, Kallakad Mundanthurai and Anamalai Tiger Reserve - were in the core area. The Supreme Court had ruled that there can be no tourist activity in the core areas. Subsequently, even the road from Muthalamada to the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, which passes through Anamalai, Sethumada and Top Slip in Tamil Nadu and re-enters Kerala into the Parambikulam Wildlife sanctuary is classified as a ‘core area’.
Now the Anamalai checkpost of Tamil Nadu which is the gateway to the Parambikuam Wildlife Sanctuary blocks tourist vehicles and turns them back.
“The tourist vehicles into Parambikulam were being blocked from July 25 onwards. However, department vehicles and the state buses, one each of the TNSTC and the KSRTC were conducting services. We had purchased four vehicles three months ago in May for transporting tourists within the sanctuary, but they are lying idle. The accommodation facilities which were available to 80 people in a single day are laying idle,” said Parambikulam Divisional Forest Officer K Vijayanand.
He said that there are around 250 Adivasis engaged as guides for tourists. But now, all of them have been rendered jobless. They have been temporarily accommodated for undertaking patrolling duty. The Adivasis living in Sungam colony, Kadavu Colony, PAP Colony and Poopara Colony are members of the Parambikulam Forest Development Agency, and they have been given uniforms and identity cards to accompany tourists.
Vijayanand pointed out that the National Wildlife Conservation Society will also be petitioning the Supreme Court since there are many issues all over India which hindered activities in the core areas but are necessary for the welfare of Adivasis and for providing basic amenities.
Though the Parambikulam Sanctuary was part of the Muthalamada panchayat in Kerala, there is no direct access to it. In the past, there were demands to lay a direct path through Nelliyampathy and Chalakudy, but these did not bear fruit.
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