Trouble In Jumbo Land

Politicians push for a railway line through the Sathyamangalam forest that will imperil the elephant and its habitat. PC VINOJ KUMAR reports

CONTIGUOUS WITH one of India’s most lush forests, the Sathyamangalam in north Tamil Nadu, is the valley of the Moyar, a perennial river that winds out of the Nilgiris

Under threat The line would fragment one of the country’s most important elephant habitats

and forms a natural barrier between the Eastern and Western Ghats. A drive along the river provides a fine view of the forest and of the fauna that make the region a wildlife enthusiast’s delight. Herds of spotted deer sprint across the road. A black buck peeks through a thicket and disappears in a flash. Fresh pachyderm dung is profuse along the road, amply indicating that this is elephant country. But this vital biodiversity preserve in the Erode district is under threat from a railway project the state government is determined to see cleared despite conservationists’ warnings.

With around 836 elephants, 12 tigers, 20 leopards and 779 blackbucks (as per this year’s wildlife census), the 1,455 sq km Sathyamangalam forest is also a major corridor for elephants. Environmentalists want the area declared a sanctuary. But Tamil Nadu’s DMK government is keen on a rail link connecting Sathyamangalam town with Chamarajanagar in Karnataka. This will make a 58-km-long gash through thick forest, with an estimated one lakh trees felled for this section of the track.

According to a forest officer, who asks not to be named, the projected line will cut through the herds’ seasonal haunt and will increase incidents of elephant-human conflict by disturbing the elephants’ movement.

What’s encouraging, though, is the forest officials’ determined and consistent resistance to the project. Sampat Lal Gupta, who served in the division as district forest officer two years ago, says he had written to the state Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) opposing the project. With other senior officials on board, the PCCF refused the Railways permission to survey the area, stating that it came under the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) and was marked for the proposed Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary. Railways officials then approached the Supreme Court-constituted Central Environment Committee (CEC). While arguing that the line would “act as a catalyst for the sustainable development of the area”, their petition nowhere raised the environmentalists’ concerns.

Though the matter is now before the CEC, powerful political interests are actively pushing for the project. Leaders reportedly in its favour include local Congress MP and Union Minister of State for Textiles, EVKS Elangovan; Sathyamangalam DMK MLA LP Dharmalingam; Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu of the PMK; and Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests S. Raghupathy, of the DMK. Elangovan participated in a pro-railway meeting in Sathyamangalam in March and urged the CEC to rule in favour of the project at the earliest. “The project would help in the development of the backward region of Sathyamangalam,” he told TEHELKA. “There will be only a minimum impact on the environment. The Railways will ensure safe passage for the elephants by constructing a number of over-bridges and tunnels.” Velu seems almost certain the line will be cleared. “Once the Supreme Court gives the project the green signal, the environment and forest ministry has to give it the go-ahead. We will then implement it after a review based on current prices since it had been sanctioned long ago,” he told TEHELKA.

Nature’s bounty A study found the new railway line unnecessary. It said the existing road was adequate

FOR THEIR part, environmental activists are waging an all-out battle to save the forest. Elephant expert Raman Sukumar says the railway line would fragment one of the country’s most important elephant habitats, “like a knife slicing through cake”. Ajay Desai, a member of the steering committee, Project Elephant, says that by hindering their free movement, the track would reduce the elephants’ genetic mixing across the Western and Eastern Ghats. N. Mohanraj, World Wildlife Fund coordinator for the Nilgiris Eastern Ghats Landscape, points out that the Sathyamangalam slopes are the habitat of the rare black buck, the barking deer and four varieties of horned antelope. “These slopes have a lot of grass and feed a large herbivorous population. The entire wildlife of the region will be affected if the railway line is constructed,” he says.

In the fight for Sathyamangalam, A. Rangarajan, a member of the Tamil Nadu Green Movement, has filed an intervention application before the CEC petitioning it to refuse the project permission.

The Tamil-Kannadiga dispute over a drinking water project at Hogenakkal is also casting a shadow over the project. Many Sathyamangalam hill tribals, in places like Talawadi and Talamalai, are Kannada-speaking. Questions are now being raised over why the region should be linked with Chamarajanagar and not Chennai.

Various studies have acknowledged the importance of this region to wildlife protection. The Asian Elephant Conservation Act Summary (1999-2001) of the US Fish and Wildlife Service describes it as “an important elephant habitat, essential to the free movement of elephants between the Nilgiri and Eastern Ghats ranges”. A yet-to-be-published study by a reputed wildlife organisation argues that the project is economically unviable since the existing road connecting Sathyamangalam and Chamarajanagar adequately serves transportation needs between the two places. “There is no high demand for passenger movement between Sathyamangalam and Chamarajanagar which the existing bus service cannot handle,” says the report, which is to be released shortly. “The volume of goods on this road would be roughly 1,007 tonnes per day… The numbers prove that the amount of material goods transported on this road is insufficient to warrant the construction of a new rail link,” states the report.

But the rail project has the support of local tribals, who believe it is a way out of their economic woes. Few think in terms of environmental losses, though CPI activist R. Nanjan is an exception. There’s a need for new ideas, he suggests, such as procuring vegetables from the region’s tribals and setting up cold storage facilities. “The government has to drop the ecologically disastrous railway project and instead come up with an alternative model of development for tribal people,” he says. •

WRITER’S E-MAIL
vinoj@tehelka.com