In tune with the Madras High Court’s suggestion on restricting tourist movement to eco-sensitive hill stations such as Udhagamandalam (Ooty) in the Nilgiris district and Kodaikanal in Dindigul district, the Nilgiris Collector has agreed to send a proposal to the State Government for imposing a cap on the number of motor vehicles that can be allowed to ply on the ghat roads per day.
The High Court had begun contemplating the possibility of restricting the number of tourists who flock to the ecologically fragile hill stations, especially during the summer season, by imposing a cap on the number of motor vehicles that could be allowed to ply on the ghat roads every day. The court said a detailed study could be conducted regarding the carrying capacity of those roads.
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A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy gave a thought to the issue after advocates Chevanan Mohan and Rahul Balaji told the court that the ghat roads get choked with motor vehicles and suffer beyond their carrying capacity during the summer season and the hill stations too undergo environmental damage due to too many tourists at a time.
A complaint was also made to the Bench with regard to ghat road widening works undertaken by purportedly making vertical cuts on the hills and thereby increasing the risk of landslides.
Responding to the Division Bench, specially constituted to hear all forest and wildlife-related cases filed in the High Court, the Nilgiris Collector M. Aruna said, the district shares its borders with neighbouring States Kerala and Karnataka and there were nine border check posts of other States as well as other districts in Tamil Nadu on the ghat roads leading to the Nilgiris.
On average, around 2,000 vehicles ply per day on the roads leading to the Nilgiris but this number grows drastically to 20,000 vehicles a day during the peak tourist seasons. The collector, however, added a rider that the number of vehicles mentioned by her include those which carry essential products such as vegetables, dairy products, tea leaves and so on and not just tourist vehicles.
She said, a class wise assessment of the vehicles could be carried out only by involving different stakeholders such as the animal husbandry, horticulture and transport departments. Figures would also have to be collected from market and transport associations. Therefore, she sought some time from the court to conduct a detailed study regarding the movement of the motor vehicles.
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“I submit that... a detailed assessment will be made with respect to the class of tourist vehicles plying into the district on normal days and during (tourist) seasons and a proposal regarding the restriction of vehicles will be sent to the government after getting due permission from the government,” Ms. Aruna said in a letter written to the Special Government Pleader (Forests) in the High Court.
The collector also stated that roughly 1,035 commercial accommodations were available in the Nilgiris district and they had 5,620 rooms which could accommodate approximately 20,000 people at a time. Therefore, these figures would be kept in mind while sending a proposal to the government with respect to the cap to be imposed on movement of motor vehicles, she added.
After the judges perused the letter placed before them, Mr. Mohan said, the National Green Tribunal’s principal bench in New Delhi had imposed a restriction on the number of vechicles that could be plied between Manali and Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh per day. The Supreme Court had refused to interfere with that order. Therefore, a similar restriction could be imposed in Tamil Nadu too, he said.
Stating that it would require a policy decision to be taken by the State Government, the judges directed the SGP (Forests) to take instructions in this regard from the government by March 27.
