CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to close down illegal resorts operating inside the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) on the grounds that the petition failed to make the owners of the resorts as respondents.
The first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy dismissed the petition filed by advocate SP Chokkalingam. The petitioner had stated that 51 resorts, including 46 functional and 5 non-functional, are located inside the tiger reserve without complying with the laws and rules, and are causing damage to the fragile forest and hill ecology.
The adverse impact of the resorts are: increased tourism and anthropogenic pressure, unsafe disposal of food and waste materials, stress to wildlife from intense focus lights and sound, impediment on the free movement of wildlife, increased vehicular movement in the forest and increased roadkill, he stated.
These resorts do not have statutory approval from the National Board of Wildlife as per section 33 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and do not have the requisite clearance from the Hill Areas Conservation Authority (HACA), he alleged.