COIMBATORE: As part of taking over land to facilitate smooth access for the wild elephant corridor, the forest department has started surveying land within the Mettupalayam Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI) on the Mettupalayam-Kotagiri Road.
The Madras High Court had ordered that land blocks from A to G be taken over by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. In the first order, the court had directed the institute to level the elephant-proof trenches (EPT) and remove fences in the boundaries of A, B, and C blocks. After direct inspection by N Sathish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, in an order dated September 12, they noted that D, E, F, and G blocks of the institute should also be handed over to the forest department.
Based on this order, the forest department would take over land from FCRI within the next six months. In this regard, the college has also submitted a letter to the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), which controls FCRI. FCRI sources said that out of 500 acres, research plots and water tanks within the institute, close to 380 acres will be handed over to the forest department.
"Except for temporary structures from land blocks A to G, there are no concrete structures that would be handed over to the forest department. Based on the earlier court order, we have also levelled the Elephant Proof Trench (EPT). Moreover, we hope that TNAU will give the go-ahead since the order came from the Madras High Court," FCRI sources added.
According to N Jayaraj, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore forest division, said, "FCRI is located on the foothills of Kotagiri and a large number of wild elephants traverse to the Bhavani Sagar Dam catchment areas at Sirumugai and Kallar. Moreover, FCRI premises are used by the majority of crop-raiding elephants that traverse through Nellimalai and Sirumugai.
"FCRI had leased the land from the forest department. In our survey, the land to be acquired is the remaining plots, which include valuable timber raised by FCRI for research purposes and drinking water tanks. There are no big structures in the land to be handed over to us," he added.
The DFO stated that they will complete the survey process in the coming weeks.
