VIRUDHUNAGAR: The forest department has identified 12 illegal, unauthorised or unrecognised resorts in SMTR, Megamalai division in Theni, revealed an RTI query on Tuesday.
In an RTI application filed by SaravanaKumaran Suryanarayanamoorthy to the Forest department, seeking the details about the number of illegal or unauthorised, or unrecognised resorts in SMTR, and steps were taken by the state government to remove or regularise the resorts, the forest department answered that 12 such resorts were identified.
"The district collector, Theni has been requested to direct the assistant director, panchayat, to stop functioning of these resorts," the RTI reply read.
In reply to another query regarding the encroachments, the forest department said there are 4,575 encroachments in SMTR, Megamalai Division, and that an action plan for the eviction of encroachment of Megamalai Wildlife Division has been submitted to the state government through the district collector, Theni. "In the phase-1 action plan regarding the eviction of encroachment, the state government has accorded sanction for a sum of Rs 1, 74, 15,000 for rehabilitation of the encroachment family and encroachers," the RTI reply read.
"Further, to implement the order, houses were allotted to the encroachers in areas outside the Megamalai forest areas through the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board, Madurai Division, and necessary steps are taken to evict the encroachments. Recently, an area of 8.906 hectares encroached by five encroachers was evicted," the reply further read.
The forest department also said in a reply that the 22 hectares infested by invasive plant species were cleared during 2022-2023. Further, when the details of the Tiger population in SMTR were sought in the RTI application, the department answered that SMTR was notified as a Tiger Reserve in 2021 and the All India Tiger Estimation was conducted for the year 2022 and the details were submitted to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Bangalore.
"The NTCA has not officially released the tiger census details. Hence, these details are not available in this office," read the RTI reply.