Chennai, March 2 (BPNS)
An eight-member committee will meet the residents of Thengumarahada on March 6th, 2022 to discuss the strategies adopted regarding their relocation from Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve( STR) and Madumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR)
The eight-member committee constituted by the Madras High Court comprises the field director of STR, who is the convenor of the committee. The committee also will have the Madumalai Tiger Reserve( MTR) field director, district collectors, and district forest officers from Erode, Coimbatore, and the Nilgiris.
This is for the first time that officers drawn from the revenue and forest departments conducting a public hearing on the relocation of residents of Thengumarahada.
Chief Wild Life Warden, Tamil Nadu, Shekar Kumar Neeraj while speaking to BPNS said, “ It is to be noted that 500 acres of land were allocated to Thengumarahada cooperative society between the years 1948 to 1952 for the stay of 142 families. After this, all these families subleased this land to 500 families which is a blatant violation of the government orders.”
The officer said that while most of the land in possession of the Thengumarahada is in the buffer zone of MTR and a part of the boundary is in the core area of STR.
The Tamil Nadu state Chief Wild Life warden said that many people have taken the land on sub-lease to cultivate cash crops like banana and sugarcane. He added that the village was an important connecting point between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats.
The Forest department said that they were relocating people from the Thengumaradha due to the increasing population of tigers in Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve( STR) as well as in Madumalai Tiger Reserve( MTR).
The Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu also said that people who are legal landowners will be provided with compensation money or land in equal value.
