TN forms two expert panels to identify new elephant corridors

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has constituted two expert committees to provide a consolidated list of elephant corridors, including those that have been identified and the potential ones.

The government informed the Madras High Court on Tuesday that the two expert committees would provide a list of existing elephant corridors as well as the potential ones by the end of March 2023.

The two committees are constituted to identify the elephant corridors in two landscapes, one to the North of Palakkad and the second to the south of Palakkad.

The one in the north comprises Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Erode, Sathyamangalam, Hassanur, Hosur, and Dharmapuri forest divisions while that to the south comprises Pollachi, Tiruppur, Dindigul, Kodaikanal, Theni, Srivilliputtur, Megamalai, Tirunelveli, Kalakkad, Ambasamudram, and Kanniyakumari divisions.

The Madras High Court had earlier directed the forest department to also consider taking over the land of people who have settled for long in the elephant corridors as these corridors could be used for the free movement of elephants.

The elephant corridors are spread into forest divisions of Kerala and Karnataka and the Tamil Nadu forest department has already communicated to the two forest departments of these two states on the elephant corridors. The wild elephants reaching human habitats is a major problem being faced by the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka forest departments.