MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday directed the state government to file a report on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which sought a direction to replace open electric lines in the Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary in Karur district with insulated cables or underground wires.
The petitioner K Pushpavanam, a research scholar in law from Madurai, stated that the Slender Loris sanctuary covered around 11,806 hectares of land (under seven blocks) in Karur and Dindigul districts. Since Slender Loris are ‘near threatened’ species as per the IUCN Red List, the state government has established a dedicated conservation centre for the species at Ayyalur in Dindigul in March 2026.
Further, he stated that he came to know from a news report on April 25 that a slender loris was electrocuted to death when it moved across an overhead electric line on the Dindigul-Erode road. Following the incident, many environmental activists demanded installation of insulated cables or protective castings on overhead electric lines to prevent such incidents, Pushpavanam added.
Moreover, the expanding road networks and localized farmland expansions are severely fragmenting the natural canopy habitats of the Slender Lorises across the State, he claimed.
Noting that this habitat disruption forces these highly arboreal (tree dwelling) creatures to use the ground or the electric lines to navigate between trees, making them exceptionally vulnerable to both electrocution and road accidents, he also sought construction of eco-friendly canopy bridges, using bamboo or wood, across roads.
The establishment of the sanctuary and conservation centres would prove futile if the above issues are not addressed, he added and sought the court’s intervention. A bench of justices N Sathish Kumar and M Jothiraman issued notice to authorities concerned.