CHENNAI: A special division bench of the Madras High Court dealing with forest-related cases has restrained temporarily the forest department officials from raising a fence (with steel wire) in a forest reserve in Coimbatore district.
The bench comprising Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy recently passed the order directing the forest department to “maintain status quo” and granted time till June 20 to file a counter-affidavit to the petition filed by activist S Muralidharan. The matter was adjourned to June 20, 2025. The wired fencing is being raised in the forest reserve in Poluvampatti.
The petitioner alleged that the steel wire fencing would cause harm to the elephants if they push through the wire, they can get entangled in it or injured; and the pachyderms may break the wires and harm themselves even if it is effective to avert human-elephant conflict. In areas where elephants break through the fencing, the damage may be more severe and the conflict with humans could escalate as the animals may seek alternative paths or food sources, he said.