3 months ago
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Animals and Nature Ethics Community Trust (ANEC), a Kochi-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has petitioned elder officials of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Kerala Forest department, and the territory catastrophe absorption authorities, alleging large-scale amerciable operation wrong the Kottiyur-Periya elephant corridor successful Wayanad, a captious elephant corridor in northbound Kerala, and urging their contiguous intervention.
The NGO has alleged that commercialized construction carried retired nether the sanction ‘Komachi Park’ astatine Boys Town successful North Wayanad is obstructing the corridor, a captious ecological transition connecting wood ranges successful Wayanad and Kannur districts. The site, located near the Palchuram ghat roadworthy crossing on the Kannur-Wayanad border, lies within 750 metres of the Kottiyoor Wildlife Sanctuary bound and falls wrong the notified Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ), the petition said.
It said that the task included several high-footfall tourism and recreational facilities, including amusement rides, a swimming pool, an aviary housing exotic birds, backstage villas, a resort, and banquet facilities. ANEC claimed that the analyzable was located astatine the narrowest bottleneck of the elephant corridor, measuring little than 50 metres in width, which it described arsenic the only viable passage for elephant question betwixt adjoining wood blocks.
In addition, the petition flagged the site’s proximity to the Ambayathode stream, a tributary of the Valapattanam river, and noted that the operation was situated on the steep occidental slopes of the Western Ghats astatine an elevation of around 2,400 feet from the oversea level. Citing catastrophe absorption norms, ANEC warned that large-scale improvement successful the country could escalate landslide risks and exacerbate human-elephant conflicts.
The ANEC referred to a connection issued by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) successful December 2025, which forwarded earlier complaints connected the contented to the territory collectors of Wayanad and Kannur for urgent examination. However, it alleged that the authorities had not acted truthful acold contempt the substance being a nationalist information concern. The letter cited provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and law duties nether Articles 48A and 51A(g) arsenic good arsenic the Supreme Court directions prohibiting operation successful notified and functional elephant corridors.
Seeking urgent action, ANEC called for an contiguous halt to construction, a tract inspection, a reappraisal of corridor restoration measures, and submission of an action-taken study wrong a month.
