The lush green canopy on the Nilgiris in Nilambur, a bio-diversity hotspot on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, was the starting point of environmental litigation in India. In 1996, it was on a petition by TN Godavarman Thirumulpad, a descendant of the erstwhile rulers of Nilambur, that the Supreme Court gave a landmark verdict defining forests and clamping down on its misuse.The order, among other things, imposed a ban on felling of trees in the Janmam lands — 80,087.74 acres of forests once held by the ruling family of Nilambur— but was taken over by TN in 1969 under the Janmam Lands (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act.But as a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) set up by the SC found out, a politician-mafia nexus in the Gudalur Taluk of Nilgiris is openly flouting court orders, threatening the bio-reserves. The 2003 report of the CEC is yet to come up for hearing in the SC.The report, a copy of which was traced by The Indian Express, lists 17 major encroachers of the Janmam lands, including the then government pleader for Forest Department PR Chandra Mohan and president of the local Devarshola town panchayat Syed Mohammed.Besides the list of 17, who the committee found had encroached over 2,750 acres of the forest, the report recommended stern action against former Gudalur MLA and Tourism Minister in the erstwhile AIADMK Government A Miller for allegedly ‘‘obstructing the implementation’’ of the SC orders. Citing letters by Miller, the Committee said he had lobbied with the then CM J Jayalalithaa to transfer the DFO of Gudalur accusing him of evicting party members in the guise of removing encroachers. The CEC, which visited the area, also received complaints on interference of politically connected persons in clearing the encroachments. The report also cites other instances of ‘‘victimisation’’ of the staff of Gudalur Forest Division at the behest of the encroachers. It records how an Assistant Settlement Officer of Dharmapuri, on the eve of his retirement, had issued orders for grant of pattas to ‘‘encroachers’’ for about 1,000 acres of the virgin forest. The Gudalur forests, at the intersection of the Eastern and Western Ghats, is a watershed for important rivers like Moyar, Chaliyar and Kabini. Important national parks and sanctuaries such as Bandipur, Mudumalai, Nagarhole, Wayanad and Mukurthi surround it.The committee also stumbled upon major encroachments of some estates on the forestland. One of this was in the ecologically sensitive ‘O’ Valley, where a bungalow was found constructed by an advocate, James Jacob, near the Manjushree plantation. The advocate, the report said, had appropriated an entire stream by cordoning it off with an electric fence, preventing elephants and other animals from reaching it. The CEC also came across three sawmills operating within a one-kilometre radius of the reserved Gudalur forest.
