New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Ooty district collector in Tamil Nadu to submit a report on the constructions and other encroachments made along the elephant corridor and their impact on the movement of elephants.
A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta gave the direction after counsel Elephant Rajendran informed that there are over 400 encroachments along the corridor and this has largely impacted the movement of elephants.
Mr Rajendran also brought to the court's notice that several elephants had died because of illegal constructions.
He sought a direction to the authorities to keep the corridor without any encroachment and any other disturbance for the free movement of elephants and other animals He wanted the illegal constructions to be demolished as per the Madras high court order.
The bench was hearing a batch of petitions relating to removal of illegal constructions along elephant corridors in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and other states.
The amicus curiae in this case suggested a series of measures for protection and preservation of elephant corridor to save elephants.
In the last hearing the court had asked the Centre and all states to respond to the amicus curiae's report.
On Thursday counsel for the Centre submitted that only few States had responded to the Centre's proposal to remove encroachments.
